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KARL MARX and FREDERICK ENGELS

Letters to Americans
1848-1895

A SELECTION

INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS CO., INC.

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

Translated by Leonard E. Mins

UNIVERSITY ?
OB ALBERTA LISRAtyy

CONTENTS

EDITOR'S PREFACE
MRS. MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
MRS. MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER
ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER
MRS. MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
MRS. MARX TO CLUSS
MARX TO CLUSS
MARX TO CLUSS
ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO CLUSS
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER
MARX TO WEYDEMEYER
ADDRESS OF INTERNATIONAL
TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN
ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER
ADDRESS OF INTERNATIONAL
TO PRESIDENT JOHNSON

March 17, 1848 15

August 1, 1849 16

August 25, 1849 16

December 19, 1849 17

April 25, 1850 18

July 27, 1850 19

June 19, 1851 20

June 27, 1851 22

August 2, 1851 23

August 7, 1851 25

September 11, 1851 27

October 16, 1851 27

October 51, 1851 28

December 19, 1851 30

January 1, 1852 30

January 10, 1852 31

January 16, 1852 32

January 25, 1852 33

January 50, 1852 36

February 15, 1852 36

February 20, 1852 37

February 27, 1852 40

February 27, 1852 42

March 15, 1852 43

March 25, 1852 46

April 16, 1852 47

April 50, 1852 48

October 28, 1852 49

December 7 , 1852 51

April, 1855 53

April 12, 1855 53

June, 1855 59

February 1, 1859 60

November 24, 1864 63

November 29, 1864 65

WORKINGMEN’S ASSOCIATION

January 7, 1865 65

March 10, 1865 67

WORKINGMENS ASSOCIATION

May 15, 1865 71

464551

MARX TO MEYER

ADDR E S°oflNT R ERN*T,ONAL WORKINGMEN, ASSOCIATION
TO NATIONAL LABOR UNION May M, 166^

MARX TO MEYER AND VOGT April 9, 1S/0

MARX TO SORGE

MARX TO MEYER

MARX TO BOLTE

MARX TO CONWAY

MARX TO SORGE

ENGELS TO CUNO

MARX TO BOLTE

MARX TO SORGE

ENGELS TO CUNO

MARX TO SORGE

ENGELS TO CUNO

ENGELS TO HEPNER

MARX TO SORGE

ENGELS TO SORGE

MARX TO SORGE

MARX TO SWINTON

MARX TO SORGE

MARX TO SWINTON

MARX TO SORGE

ENGELS TO SORGE

ENGELS TO HEPNER

ENGELS TO SORGE

ENGELS TO CUNO

ENGELS TO VAN PATTEN

ENGELS TO SORGE

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY

ENGELS TO SCHLUTER

ENGELS TO SORGE

September 1, 1870

January 21, 1871

August 25, 1871

August 29, 1871

September 12, 1871

November 6, 1871

November 9, 1871

Noif ember 13, 1871

November 23, 1871

November 29, 1871

January 24, 1872

April 22-23, 1872

101

May 7-8, 1872

103

June 10, 1872

107

June 21, 1872

108

July 5, 1872

109

August 4, 1872

110

December 30, 1872

111

August 4, 1874

112

September 12, 17, 1874

114

September 27, 1877

115

October 19, 1877

116

September 19, 1879

118

November 4, 1880

121

November 5, 1880

123

June 2, 1881

127

June 20, 1881

127

December 15, 1881

130

June 20, 1882

131

July 25, 1882

132

March 14, 1883

134

March 15, 1883

134

March 29, 1883

136

April 18, 1883

137

April 24, 1883

139

June 29, 1883

140

March 7, 1884

142

December 31, 1884

143

February 10, 1885

144

May 15, 1885

145

June 3, 1885

146

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY January 7, 1886 148

ENGELS TO SORGE January 29, 1886 148

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY February 3, 1886 149

ENGELS TO SORGE February 9, 1886 150

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY February 25, 1886 150

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY March 12, 1886 152

ENGELS TO SORGE April 29, 1886 152

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY June 3, 1886 157

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY August 13, 1886 158

ENGELS TO SORGE September 16, 1886 160

ENGELS TO SORGE November 29, 1886 162

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY December 28, 1886 165

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY January 27, 1887 167

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY February 9, 1887 169

ENGELS TO SORGE February 12, 1887 174

ENGELS TO SORGE March 3, 1887 176

ENGELS TO SORGE March 10, 1887 177

ENGELS TO SORGE March 16, 1887 178

ENGELS TO SORGE April 6, 1887 180

ENGELS TO SORGE April 9, 1887 181

ENGELS TO SORGE April 23, 1887 183

ENGELS TO SORGE May 4, 1887 184

ENGELS TO SORGE May 7, 1887 186

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY May 7, 1887 187

ENGELS TO SORGE June 30, 1887 188

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY July 20, 1887 189

ENGELS TO SORGE August 8, 1887 189

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY September 15, 1887 190

ENGELS TO SORGE September 16, 1887 192

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY December 3, 1887 193

ENGELS TO SORGE January 7, 1888 194

ENGELS TO SORGE February 22, 1888 195

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY February 22, 1888 196

ENGELS TO SCHLUTER March 17, 1888 198

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY April 11, 1888 198

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY May 2, 1888 199

ENGELS TO SORGE July 11, 1888 200

ENGELS TO SORGE August 4, 1888 201

ENGELS TO SORGE August 28. 1888 202

ENGELS TO SORGE August 31, 1888 202

ENGELS TO SORGE September 10, 1888 203

ENGELS TO SORGE September 11, 1888 204

ENGELS TO SORGE September 12, 1888 205

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY September 18, 1888 205

ENGELS TO SORGE October 10, 1888 206

ENGELS TO SORGE December 15, 1888 207

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY January 12, 1889 207

VII

ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SCHLOTER
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SCHLOTER
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SCHLOTER
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO LLOYD
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO HOURWICH
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SCHLOTER
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SORGE
ENGELS TO SCHLOTER
ENGELS TO SORGE

January 12, 1889
February 2), 1889
May 11, 1889
June 8, 1889
July 17, 1889
July 20, 1889
October 12, 1889
December 7, 18S9
January 11, 1890
February 8, 1890
April 12, 1890
April 19, 1890
November 3, 1890
January 29, 1891
June 10, 1891
August 9-11, 1891
September 14, 1891
October 24, 1891
January 6, 1892
March 3, 1892
March JO, 1892
December 31, 1892
January 18, 1893
March 18, 1893
March, 1893
May 17, 1893
May 27, 1893
October 7, 1893
November 11, 1893
December 2, 1893
December 2, 1893
February 23, 1894
March 21, 1894
May 12, 1894
November 10, 1894
December 4, 1894
January 1, 1893
January 16, 1893

APPENDICES

I. PREFACE BY V. I. LENIN TO THE RUSSIAN EDITION OF Letters to Sorge

II. the labor movement in the united states by Frederick Engels

III. American travel notes by Frederick Engels

208

210

212

213

217

218

219

220
222
224
227
229
232
232
231
234
236
236
238

241

242

243
246
248

251

252

253

254

256

257
259

259

260
262
263
266
268
269

273

285

291

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES AND INDEX 294

SUBJECT INDEX 305

VIII

EDITOR’S PREFACE

THE letters in this volume have been selected from the voluminous
correspondence of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels with Americans.
Most of the letters are to Americans of German origin, who came to
play an important role in the labor and socialist movement of the
United States. Covering a half century, from 1848 to 1895, the cor-
respondence deals with many events and themes of great historic
interest and with the views and activities of numerous personalities
in Europe and the United States.

Marx and Engels have scarcely a peer as letter writers, either in
the encyclopedic range of their interests, the sheer volume of their
correspondence, or the influence they exerted through this medium.
For nearly thirty years they had to rely on the mails for the con-
tinuous exchange of views between themselves, the working out of
plans, and critiques of each other’s literary projects. Except for
visits at rare intervals, Engels was tied to his desk at his father’s
firm in Manchester, while Marx was working in London, in the
British Museum or at home, on his analysis of capitalist society
and as the inspirer and organizer of the proletarian movement all
over Europe.

In their capacity as leaders of world socialism, Marx and (espe-
cially after Marx’s death) Engels were in constant correspondence
with the principal figures of the labor movements in France, Ger-
many, Austria, Russia, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, and other Euro-
pean countries, as well as in the United States. 1

In the mid-century, when the correspondence begins, the United
States was a haven not only for European capital seeking profitable
investment, but also for immigrants fleeing religious and political

1 The correspondence between Marx and Engels, comprising 1569 letters from
1844 to 1883, when Marx died, was published in four large volumes by the Marx-
Engels Verlag, Berlin, in 1929, under the title, Karl Marx und Friedrich Engels,
Briefwechsel ( Correspondence ) , as Part III of the Gesamtausgabe ( Collected
Works ) of Marx and Engels. The volumes were prepared by the Marx-Engels,
now the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute in Moscow, which has published the
Collected Works in Russian translation comprising 29 large volumes, including
Five volumes of correspondence of Marx and Engels with others, in addition to
the four volume of letters between themselves. The collection of letters by
Friedrich A. Sorge, Brief e und Auszuge aus Brie fen an FA. Sorge und Andere

editor’s preface

possible the overthrow of the slave system, the last major obstacle
Ke unification of the country and capture of the home market.
This was followed toward the end of the century by the emergei ce
of the United States as a great industrial power, ready to embark
fully upon die imperialist stage.

The extensive and rich correspondence of Marx and Lngels with
their friends in the United States reflects their deep and lasting
interest in the development of capitalism in the new country, which
they viewed as a confirmation of their basic analysis of capitalist
society. Their interest in the United States was also enlivened by
the fact that the influx of political immigrants following the
bourgeois-democratic revolutions of 1848 in Europe brought to the
new country the ferment of socialist ideas. Earlier, the Utopian
socialists— followers of Charles Fourier, Etienne Cabet, Robert
Owen, and others— established short-lived model colonies of "so-
cialism,” but even more important was the influence of these ideas
upon working class and progressive circles. The controversies
which the founders of scientific socialism carried on with the
Utopians, the "true” socialists, and the Proudhonists, and then with

(Utters and Excerpts from Letters to FA. Sorge and Others), published by Dietz
Verlag. Stuttgart, in 1906, contains 170 letters from Marx and Engels to others
during the period 1868 to 1895, when Engels died. A volume of 185 letters to
German and Austrian Socialist leaders was prepared by the Marx-Engels-Lenin
Institute and published in 1933 in the Soviet Union, under the title, Karl Marx-

IIIHILUIC dllU puuusuwu *»* * •**

Friedrich Engels, Briefe an A. Bebel, W. Liebknecht, K. Kautsky und Andere,
Teil I, 1870-1886 (Letters to August Bebel, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Karl Kautsky,
and others , Part 1, 1870-1886) .

A Russian translation of 193 letters of Marx and Engels to Russians, covering
the period from 1846 to 1895, was published by the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute
in Moscow' in 1947, under the title, Correspondence of Marx and Engels with
Russian Political Leaders.

A collection of 234 letters between Marx and Engels and between them and
others in English translation appeared in New York and London in 1942 under
the title. The Selected Correspondence of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels ,
1846-1895. Another collection of 62 letters was published in the same cities in
1934: Karl Marx, Letters to Dr. Kugelmann. Sixty-one letters between Marx and
Engels are included in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Civil War in the
United States, New York, 1937. Many letters are repeated in the various selec-
tions.

editor's preface

Michael Bakunin, Ferdinand Lassalle and their followers, as well
as their later polemics against reformists and revisionists in Europe,
were reflected in this country where followers of these conflicting
trends were also to be found in the labor and socialist movements.
The letters therefore abound in lively discussions of the various
trends and ideas at conflict within working class circles in the period
following the revolutions of 1848, then in the First International
(1864-1876), and later in the socialist and labor parties which formed
the Second International in 1889.

The chief correspondents of Marx and Engels on this side of the
Atlantic played an important role in the American socialist and
labor movement. From the fifties on, German-American workers
were active participants in the struggle of the Negro people to free
themselves from bondage, and their organizations in New York,
Boston, Chicago and elsewhere were in many cases the precursors
of the first nation-wide trade unions of the American workers as
a whole. German-American followers of Marx organized the pioneer
socialist groups and became the core of the First International in
America and subsequently of the Socialist Labor Party.

Joseph Weydemeyer and Friedrich A. Sorge were the outstand-
ing socialist leaders, the former during the fifties and sixties, and
the latter in the period following the Civil War. Marx and Engels
were thus in direct touch with the most active socialist forces then
at work in the United States. Through these letters and in their
numerous articles in the Nezv York Tribune , which cover the same
period as the correspondence with Weydemeyer, as well as in other
publications, Marx and Engels made their influence felt during
the formative period of the labor and socialist movement in the
United States. In the letters to Hermann Schliiter, as well as to
Florence Kelley and other non-German Americans, the direct
Marxist influence was continued into the years of the great labor
upsurge of the eighties and nineties. By this time also, some of the
basic writings of Marx and Engels had become available to the
American public.

The letters to Weydemeyer, which open the present collection,
are of special interest, not only because he was a very close friend of
Marx and Engels but also because he may be considered the first
American Marxist leader. A Prussian artillery officer and engineer
by profession, he left the military service to devote himself to the
revolutionary-democratic movement of the forties in Germany.
Associated with Marx and Engels from the time they first began
their life-long collaboration, Weydemeyer participated actively in

editor’s preface

i-aSSS:

^sTl 'unable^oearn a living there, and with the reluctant agree-
ment of Marx and Engels who had tried in tvam tofta td woik or
him in London, Weydemeyer emigrated to America, land g
New York on November 7, 1851.

' on his arrival, he received two letters from Marx written during
his journey (the letters of October 16 and 31) . which included
suggestions^ for the publication in the United States of English and
Gennan editions of the Communist Manifesto and other writings
of Marx and Engels. This was the beginning of a long trans-
Atlantic collaboration, in which Weydemeyer acted as literary
representative for Marx and Engels in the United States, placing
their articles in various periodicals and arranging for the publica-
tion or sale of their larger works. For their part, Marx and Engels
obtained the collaboration of their European associates as corre-
spondents for the various papers in which Weydemeyer was intei -
ested A similar relationship had been established when W eyde-
meyer was still in Germany and Marx and Engels in exile in
England, and in the new country Weydemeyer eagerly resumed his
role as an energetic promoter of the works of scientific socialism.
In his short-lived journal, Die Revolution , which appeared in New
York in 1852, he published for the first time Marx s 18th Brumaire
of Louis Bonaparte, which has since become a classic of historical
wTiting. This important work was published in Europe only in
1869.

Weydemeyer himself soon began WTiting in the German-Ameri-
can press on current problems, and he was also active as an or-
ganizer, forming the Proletarian League in New r York in 1852.
From the beginning he fought against the sectarian tendency among
the German-American workers and directed their attention to the
organization of American labor as a whole. As co-editor in 1853
and 1854 of Die Reform, a New York weekly for which Engels was
a London correspondent, and as a lecturer, Weydemeyer sought
to develop and to encourage trade union unity between the Ger-
man and native-born workers. Moving to Milwaukee in 1856, he
continued these activities in the Middle West, becoming especially
active in the anti-slavery struggle and participating in the first
Republican campaign of that year. In his lectures and writings he
called attention to the economic roots of slavery and its relation-
ship to capitalist development. As editor of Stimme des Volkes
(People’s Voice) , a daily labor paper published in Chicago, Wey-

editor’s preface

demeyer helped win the support of the important German com-
munity for the nomination of Lincoln in 1860 and thus overcome
the threatening split in the young Republican Party.

On the outbreak of the Civil War, Weydemeyer called upon the
workers to enlist in the armed anti-slavery struggle. He was soon
appointed by President Lincoln to serve as an artillery captain on
the staff of General John C. Fremont, who had been named Com-
mander-in-Chief of the Department of the West, with headquarters
in St. Louis. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in command
of a volunteer artillery regiment, and led successful warfare against
Southern guerilla forces in Missouri. Mustered out at the expira-
tion of his term in September 1863, Weydemeyer returned to public
activity, supporting the Radical wing of the Republican Party and
also urging unity behind Lincoln to assure victory — a position sus-
tained by the Address of the International Workingmen’s Asso-
ciation (First International) , written by Marx, congratulating
Lincoln on his re-election in 1864. 1

On the eve of that critical election, Weydemeyer again entered
the Union Army as colonel in command of the 41st Infantry Mis-
souri Volunteers. After active service, he was mustered out as a
major-general together with his regiment in July 1865. There is no
record of correspondence with Marx and Engels during his first
period of military service, but during the second period he received
at least three letters from them. A letter from Marx enclosed the
First International’s Address to Lincoln, and the two letters from
Engels were a detailed discussion of the military strategy of the
Civil War, including the final campaign of 1865. 2

Weydemeyer now turned his attention to the organization of the
American sections of the First International. His work in Chicago,
St. Louis, and Milwaukee led to the affiliation of the German-
American labor bodies in these cities to the International Working-
men’s Association and later to the National Labor Union as well.
An indication of the high public esteem that Weydemeyer enjoyed
was his election as County Auditor in St. Louis, taking office on
January 1, 1866. But six months later, on August 20, at the age of
48, Weydemeyer died, a victim of the cholera epidemic of that year. 3

After the death of Weydemeyer, Marx and Engels continued a
sporadic correspondence, mostly with German-Americans active in
the sections of the First International. However, the correspond-

1 See pp. 65-66.

* For a detailed study of Weydemeyer‘s activities, see Karl Obermann, Joseph
Weydemeyer: Pioneer of American Socialism, New York, 1947.

8 See pp. 63, 65, and 67.

editor s preface

ence with Sorge, which began in 1870. continued until the death of

En fhe son^of a progressive Saxon pastor. Sorge was brought up as
a radical demoaat, and participated in the Revolunon of 1848.
Undei sentence of death for his part in the military campaign
against the Prussian counter-revolutionary troops m Baden, Sorge
Zd for a time in Switzerland and Belgium, and then came to
London, intending to embark for Australia, but he was placed
aboard the wrong ship and landed m New \ork on June ^1,1 8
After trying his hand at various trades, he finally established himself

as a music teacher. . , , r

Serge's public activity in the United States began with the forma-
tion of the Communist Club in New York in 1857, the successor
to the Marxist Proletarian Club organized five years before by
Weydemeyer. Sorge played a leading role in the Communist Club,
which made significant contributions to the fight against slavery,
many of its members and followers enlisting in the Union Army.
In the decade following the Civil War, this small but influential
club played an important role in the upsurge of the labor move-
ment, with which Sorge’s name is closely linked. Like Weydemeyer,
Sorge was aware of the sectarian dangers which beset the German
workers organizations and of the Lassallean influences which simul-
taneously tended to divert them into reformist channels. As a result
of the fight against these tendencies, Sorge and other followers of
Marx became the leaders of the most important sections of the
First International in the United States, which also affiliated to the
National Labor Union, providing the link between the first nation-
wide organization of American labor and the international work-
ing class movement. It was largely as a result of Sorge’s activities,
and of Weydemeyer’s earlier influence, that relations were estab-
lished between the First International and William H. Sylvis,
founder of the National Labor Union and advocate of affiliation
to the I.W.A.

In the early seventies, Sorge became the leading figure in the
American branch of the International. At the Hague Congress in
1872, to which he was a delegate, Sorge was elected general sec-
retary of the I.W.A, which transferred its headquarters to New
York. He held this post until 1876, when the International was
dissolved. During these years, he corresponded with sections in
many parts of the world, and continued these contacts for the rest of
his life. In the American movement, after the organization of the
Socialist Labor Party in 1877 , he was active mostly as a publicist.
He was also a contributor to the Neue Zeit, theoretical organ of the

editor’s preface

Social-Democratic Party of Germany. His series of articles on the
American labor movement in that journal, appearing in 1891-92
and written at Engels’ suggestion and encouragement, still serves
as a reference source for labor historians. Sorge lived for a time in
Rochester, New York, and for many years in Hoboken, New Jersey,
where Engels visited him during his short trip to the United States.

The correspondence of Engels with Hermann Schluter belongs to
the later period, that is, after the death of Marx. While both Wey-
demeyer and Sorge began their political activity during the forma-
tive period of the socialist movement in Europe, Schluter came to
this country in 1889, direct from work on the editorial board of the
Sozialdemokrat. As the central organ of the German Social-Demo-
cratic Party during the period of Bismarck’s Anti-Socialist Law, it
was published abroad, first in Zurich and later in London. The
correspondence between Engels and Schluter began when the latter
was still in Europe, and was continued when Schluter became an
editor of the New York Volkszeitung, the German daily organ of
the Socialist Labor Party until 1900, and later of the Socialist Party,
a post he retained until his death in 1919. The best-known book
by Schluter is his Lincoln, Labor and Slavery, a pioneer history of
the labor movement during the Civil War era, and he was also the
author of a history of the First International in America, a book
on the Chartist movement (which he studied during his stay in
England), and a history of the Brewery Workers’ Union.

Some of the most trenchant criticism of the dogmatic and sec-
tarian policies of the Socialist Labor Party is contained in Engels’
letters to Florence Kelley. She was married to Dr. Louis W’isch-
newetzky, a New York physician whom she met while studying in
Switzerland, where she made her first acquaintance with Marxism.
Engels addressed her as “Mrs. Wischnewetzky”; after her marriage
terminated in divorce, Florence Kelley resumed her maiden name,
by which she was known in the socialist and labor movement.
During the period of correspondence with Engels, she was a mem-
ber of the Socialist Labor Party, and translated his Condition of the
Working Class in England in 1844, arranging for its publication
here in 1887. She also translated Marx’s Brussels address on Free
Trade, and supplied Engels with reports and other data on con-
ditions of labor in the United States.

Florence Kelley became outstanding among social reformers of
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially in the
campaigns for protective laws for women workers and effective
child labor measures. An aggressive fighter against the sweatshop,
she became the first chief factory inspector of Illinois. A member

g editor’s preface

T ,, „„ Kp iipv was an energetic crusader for

££%2SIZI&» a'» r hcr bdM ,hat °" ,y

ca» guarantee lull rights ot labor.

, , . - .I,:,, volume appear for the first time in

Many of the le “ e *V . herc for thc £t time in any language.
English; otheis are pi volume is the voluminous

The principal source »l the pie* ^ ^ „ hich he co l lccted .

correspondence ruth Sorg > ‘ 1906 s orge turned these valu-

Shortly before his death together with his

£ ^ request ol

own library ana . p he sent a transcript of se-

lened'tatm tai his collection to J.H.W. Oku, the party’s put
lectea r v which published them in 1906. 1 In Ins

“uZiSon to this volume, dated August 1906, two mouths before
LTdeath, Sorge thanks Karl Kautsky and Franz Mel.rtng lor thetr
advice and assistance in preparing the letters lor publication.

Comparison of the holograph letters m the Sorge collection
in^he manuscript division of the New York Public Library with
the texts published in 1906 indicates a double censorship. Certain
passages were crossed out in red crayon in the manuscript, appar-
ently by the hand of Sorge, in preparation for the transmission of
copies of the letters to the German publishing house. These de-
leted passages mosdy refer to Sorge’s own personal affairs or to
personal matters reflecting upon other Americans then still alive.
Sorge states in his preface that in making the selection from the
many hundreds of letters in his possession, he omitted those which
seemed to him unessential and unimportant.

However, it appears that Sorge did not presume to exercise a
political censorship of the sometimes biting criticisms of German
and other European socialist leaders voiced by Marx and Engels.
The political censorship of the letters was done by the German
editors, who often failed to indicate in the published text where
such deletions had been made. Deleted passages which are pertinent
to the basic thought of Marx and Engels and to their criticisms of
the policies and tactics of various Socialist leaders have been re-
stored in the letters included in this volume.

A Russian translation of the Letters to Sorge was published in
St. Petersburg in 1907, with a preface by V.I. Lenin. Though Lenin

1 Brief e und Auszuge aus Brief en von Joh. Phil. Becker , Jos. Dietzgen, Friedrich

Engels, Karl Marx u.A. an F.A. Sorge und andere ( Letters and Excerpts from
Letters by John Philipp Becker, Joseph Dietzgen, Frederick Engels, Karl Marx
and others to F.A. Sorge and others) , Dietz Verlag, Stuttgart, 1906.

editor’s preface

at that time did not know of the political editing to which the
letters had been subjected, he considered this collection of such
importance in laying bare the sources of dogmatism and sectarian-
ism in the labor movements of the United States and Britain and of
opportunism in the European Social-Democracy that his preface
turned into a full-length essay on the subject. Because of its political
as well as historical importance, Lenin’s preface is printed as an
appendix in this volume.

In addition to 96 letters selected from the Sorge collection, the
present volume contains 69 letters which have since become avail-
able. Two of them, to John Swinton, exist in photostat form in the
New York Public Library, while excerpts from others were pub-
lished by Franz Mehring in Vol. 25 of the Neue Zeit (1907) . Most
of the new material in this volume, however, exists in the original
or in photostat form in the archives of the Marx-Engels-Lenin In-
stitute in Moscow, which has graciously made them available. The
new material 1 includes the correspondence with Joseph Weyde-
meyer, as well as the letters to Adolph Cluss, Moncure D. Conway,
Theodore Cuno, Adolph Hepner, Isaac Hourwich, Henry Demar-
est Lloyd, Siegfried Meyer, Phillip Van Patten, and August Vogt.
Also included are seven additional letters to Sorge, four to Schliiter,
and three to Florence Kelley, which are not contained in Letters to
Sorge. Thanks to the new material, it is possible to present a more
rounded picture of the correspondence of Marx and Engels with
Americans than can be found in the Sorge volume, and also over a
longer period.

In the course of preparing these texts for publication, evidence
was found of many other letters written by Marx and Engels to
Americans which have not been located. The diaries and notebooks
of Marx and Engels indicate that many letters to Hermann Meyer,
Adolph Cluss, Karl Speyer, and others have been lost.

The numerous letters to Charles Anderson Dana, managing
editor of the New York Tribune 2 and later editor-in-chief of the

1 Some of the recently uncovered letters have appeared in Selected Corre-
spondence of Marx and Engels, referred to above.

2 The New York Tribune, founded by Horace Greeley in 1842, was the most
influential newspaper in the United States at the time. During the early years
of the Tribune, Greeley was an advocate of Utopian socialism, especially of the
theories of Charles Fourier, the great French Utopian. Albert Brisbane, Fourier’s
chief American disciple, popularized his theories in the Tribune. Brook Farm
in Massachusetts was the most famous of the two-score Fourier communities
founded during the forties in the United States. The outstanding intellectuals
of the day were associated with it, among them Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry Thoreau, and Margaret
Fuller. As editor, Greeley gave the paper a pro-labor tone, himself having been

EDITOR’S PREFACE

r. negligently thrown away after his death in
New York Sun, vat with the many articles written

1897. This correspondence t ^ ^ Tribune, for which Marx was
by Marx and Engels no > tQ lg62> but a i so f or Putnams

European correspondent fr0 ® • and f or the New American
Monthly, a leading Jf $ an ’editor. The generally cordial

Encyclopedia, of 'duel ‘ and Dana although ldeologi-

rdations which by a letter of March 8.

cally they were far apa . written at the latter’s request

1860, from Dana to I Ia • • ^ current a t the time. In his

;° be nal^hd atMarx had already written for the Tribune

letter, Dana recalls ma we ek’s interruption and

for almost nine years v. g valued” contributors to the

refen to h.mM Ld writKn some "very im-

paper. Dana also r E do p ed i a , and adds: “In all your vent-
portant articles for ■ , P hands you have always mam-

ings which have passed progress of the

tested .he mo,. cordral ^ 3 irect refer .

‘tTo 8 ^nd" Sinee^l le^ also reveals, Dana ofren
differed with Marx on his interpretation of events the correspond-
ence between the two would have been of unusual interest.

As far as is known, ever)- available letter that was ^dressed to
an American by Marx and Engels has been scrutinized and con-
sidered for inclusion in this volume. However, this is not a defini-
tive edition. Letters and portions of letters have been selected with
a view to presenting a large cross-secuon of the vital rich and
extensive correspondence with Americans which, if published in
[ull, would have filled a volume double the present size.

. first nresident of the Typographical Union of New York (now known as
the "Big P Six”). The Tribune also became one of the outstanding Abolitionist

nurans of the decade preceding the Civil War.

Da“ a who was particularly interested in European affairs, first met Mane in
Cologne during the Revolution of 1848. Considering him its ol ^ tan d*"g «der,
Dana asked Marx in 1851 to write a series of articles on the revolution in
Germany. These were written by Engels at the request of Marx, _ who wjjjtajj
at the time with his initial economic studies, culminating in his Cn^gtie /
Political Economy, which was published in 1859. Marx also felt that he ha
as vet attained fluency in English. Thus began the period of Marx s contribu-
tions to the Tribune. Though Marx wrote most of the articles during his deca e
of association with the newspaper, he frequently called upon Engels for aid in
connection with articles dealing with military matters, in which he considered
his great friend his superior. This was an example of the creative collaboration
of the two men of genius which remained unbroken during the span of forty
yean.

EDITOR'S PREFACE

In a correspondence of this scope carried on simultaneously with
many individuals repetition is inevitable, and in making the present
selection this has been avoided wherever possible. For the most
part, the deletions and omissions deal with personal affairs, obscure
personalities of the immigration, numerous requests for data and
acknowledgment of their arrival, and arrangements for publica-
tion and distribution of periodicals and of the writings of Marx,
Engels, and their associates. Omissions in letters are indicated in
the usual manner.

In some cases, letters written by Marx and Engels to correspond-
ents before their emigration to the United States have been in-
cluded, notably to Weydemeyer and Schliiter, to indicate the nature
of their continuing relationship over many years in Europe and
in this country. Four letters from Mrs. Marx have also been in-
cluded, since they were written at the request of Marx and are of
intrinsic value. Written by Marx, the Addresses of the First Inter-
national in this volume are correspondence in the broader sense,
since they were directed to the American people or to American
labor as a whole.

The letters are arranged chronologically, and most of them are
translated from the original German. When writing to non-German
Americans, Marx and Engels usually wrote in English, as in their
correspondence with Moncure D. Conway, Isaac Hourwich, Flor-
ence Kelley, Henry Demarest Lloyd, John Swinton, and Phillip
Van Patten. Foreign words and phrases, which abound in the prose
style of both Marx and Engels, have been given in the original and
translated into English [in brackets]. Footnotes are by the trans-
lator, Leonard E. Mins, who also drew upon the notes appearing in
the Sorge volume to annotate the text and for the biographical index.

In addition to Lenin's preface, the Appendices include “Ameri-
can Travel Notes," an unfinished fragment by Engels which sup-
plements his impressions as given in his correspondence about his
short visit to the United States, and also Engels' article on “The
Labor Movement in America," which summarizes for the American
reader the same views which he expressed in numerous letters to
his friends in the United States.

Alexander Trachtenberg

January 1953.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

MRS. MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

Paris, Thursday [March 17, 1848]

Dear Mr. Weydemeyer:

My husband is again so busy in this gigantic city, with a host of
things to do, that he commissioned me to request you to publish
the following notice in the W estphdlisches Dampfboot: Several
German societies have been formed here (Mr. Liining has been in-
formed of them in detail) , but the German Workers Club, headed
by the London Germans— Schapper, Bauer, Moll — and by the Ger-
mans from Brussels — Marx, Wolff, Engels, Wallau, and Born (also
directly connected with the British Chartists through Harney and
Jones) — have nothing in common with the German Democratic
Society headed by Bomstein, Bornstedt, Herwegh, Volk, Decker,
etc. — a society that has raised the black-red-and-gold banner (in
this respect, moreover, the Federal Diet anticipated it), that talks
about “Father Bliicher,” and that engages in military drill by sec-
tion under the command of retired Prussian officers. It is absolutely
necessary to repudiate this society before the public opinion of
France and Germany, because it is a disgrace to the Germans. If
the Dampfboot isn't appearing soon, place a brief article based on
these facts in some German newspaper, with which you down in the
South have closer contacts. Try to have this circulated as widely
as possible in the German press.

I should like to write you much more about the interesting move-
ment under way here, which is growing from minute to minute
(400,000 workers marched past the City Hall tonight). The masses
of demonstrators are growing and growing. But I am so over-
burdened with housework and caring for my three little ones that
all I have left is time to send you and your dear wife cordial greet-
ings from afar.

Salut et fraternity

Citoyenne et Vagabonde

Jenny Marx

MARX AND ENGELS

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

[Paris, ca. August 1, 1849]

Dear Weydemeyer: iion pamphlets can be issued.

. . . Now tell me how, in you 1 wage labor, the bc-

I should like to begin wit 1 Rheinische Zeitung. 1

ginning of which .was pnn ted in broc hure on the

would writ. » r, h "k that Leske, for instance,

present ° * evcw he would have to pay, and

l%tL P “e «ady"o order it in advance. M, present finances do

c a „ — „

^rereiTedflem^tom Engels yesterday. He is in Switterland and
participated in four battles as Willich’s adjutant.

P t£ sword of Damocles is still hanging over my head. My de-
portation has been neither revoked nor carried out. ,

P No matter how grievous our personal situation and the general
state of affairs, I still count myself among the comented. Matters
are going very well, and the Waterloo suffered by official democracy
must be looked upon as a victory-. The governments by the grace
of God are taking upon themselves the task of wreaking our ven-
geance upon the bourgeoisie and punishing it.

During the next few days I may send you a little article on the
situation in England for your newspaper. At the moment I am
sick and tired of this subject, since I have already dealt with it at
length in various private letters.

Write me directly at my address: Rue de Lille, Monsieur Ramboz.
Regards to you and your wife from my wife and me. My wife
doesn't feel too well— the natural result of her “interesting condi-
tion.” Good-bye, dear friend, and write soon.

Yours,

K. M.

ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER

Dear Weydemeyer:

Lausanne, August 25, 1849

After so many incidents, after so many delays in Hesse and the
Palatinate, after three weeks of idling in Kaiserslautern, after a

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 17

month of glorious campaigning, during which for the sake of
diversity I strapped on a saber and became Willich's adjutant, after
a month of tedious billeting in a camp in the canton of Vaud to-
gether with a detachment of refugees, I have at last managed to
get here, to Lausanne, and am standing on my own feet. First of
all, I am going to sit down and write the gay story of the whole
comical Palatine-Baden venture. But as I have no contacts in
Germany anymore and do not know which cities are under martial
law and which are not, I don't know what publisher to turn to.
I don't know any of them. On the spot, you have a clearer picture
of what publishers would be inclined to begin negotiations for
publishing such a history, which is completely harmless, of course,
and involves no danger of confiscation or a lawsuit. It may be that
a publisher of that sort can be found in Frankfurt. But he must
have money. Be so good as to write me about this as soon as you
can, so that I can take the necessary steps at once. 1 . . .

Sincere regards to your wife and all our friends from

Your

Engels

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

London, December i9, 1849

Dear Weydemeyer:

. . . Here in England an extremely important movement is
developing at the present time. On the one hand, we have the
agitation carried on by the protectionists, based on the fanaticism
of the rural population — the results of free trade in corn are
beginning to be felt exactly as I predicted several years ago. On
the other hand, the free-traders are drawing further political and
economic conclusions from their system, playing the part of financial
and parliamentary reformers in domestic politics, and acting as the
party of peace— in foreign affairs. And, lastly, there are the Chartists,
who are working together with the bourgeoisie against the aristoc-
racy, but at the same time have resumed their own party move-
ment against the bourgeoisie, with increased energy. If, as I hope—
and this hope of mine is not without solid foundations— the Tories
replace the Whigs in the Cabinet, the conflict between these two

1 Engels later wrote this story as part of his Die deutseke R eichverfassu ngs-
kampagne [“The Campaign for a Constitution for the German Reich**], published
in the first three numbers of Marx’s Neue Rheinische Zeitung — Politisch -
dkonorriische Revue in 1850.

MARX AND ENGELS

g MARX AND Em»r.i.a

parties will assume tremendous

of agitation will become ««niarwd more r ^o ^ ^ ^ ^

event, not yet noticed on the Ce»w*n«. crisis . I{ the
mendous industrial, ^.cultural, breaks out> E

Continent postpones its cven ainst

land may turn out to be rom the very 5 - 8 ature

its will, an ally of the revolutiomuy is °™ ^ " ovoked directly by

outbreak of the revolution-ponded * is ^ o P ro ^ misfortun J J
Russian intervention-would be, in J P more and more in
at the present time, when trade . P g thc sma n

Sre^y’^ - - - of

C ° U You e know 'that my wife has presented the world with a new
citizen. She asks me to send you and your wife her warmest regaids.
Give your wife my cordial regards too. Write soon.

K. Marx

ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER

London, April 25, 1850

Dear Weydemeyer: , , ,

Your letter to Marx, together with £5 for the refugee fund and
a note for me, arrived today. And you, in the meanwhile, most
likely have received two letters with statements and appeals on
behalf of the refugee committee. Print them as soon as possible, and
do everything you can in your area to collect money for the
emigres. You will learn the rest from the enclosed letter to
DFronke]. Perhaps something can be collected in Franconia, in
Numberg, Baireuth, etc. The Neue Rheinische Zeitung used to sell
fairly well there. If you know of anyone to write to in Munich, let
us know, too. You understand that now, when that jackass Struve
and his partners are trying to get into the newspapers on the eve
of the revolution, utilizing the refugees for this purpose, it is a
matter of honor for us to continue to support at least our emigres,
thus keeping the best among the new arrivals from falling into the
hands of these jackasses.

We thought that both of the subsequent issues of the Revue 1
had reached you: the second number five weeks ago, and the third,

1 Neue Rheinische Zeitung— Politisch-dkonomische Revue, a monthly edited
by Karl Marx and published in Hamburg from January to April, 1850.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

1 9

a few days ago. It turns out that the jackass Naut didn’t send them
to youl We wrote him a sharp letter today, demanding that he send
them to you at once. The third number will probably be in his
hands within a week. Don't criticize until you get the third num-
ber, in which the first series of articles is concluded.

Good-bye,

Your

F. E.

We have just learned that the blackguards Struve, Tellering,
Schramm, Bauer (of Stolp), and others are spreading the rumor in
several German newspapers that our committee is allegedly eating
up the refugee funds itself. This slander is also being repeated in
private letters. You can’t have read of this anywhere, for otherwise
you would have taken a stand in our defense long ago. You know
that all of us have laid out money for the revolution and that it
hasn’t brought us a single cent. Even the Neue Preussische Zeitung
and other papers never dared to accuse us of such things. Only the
rascally democrats, the impotent “great men” of the middle classes,
were despicable enough to spread such infamous libels. Our com-
mittee has already issued three reports, and each time we have
asked our contributors to appoint authorized representatives to
audit our books and receipts. Has any other committee done that?
We have a receipt for every cent. Not a single member of the com-
mittee has ever gotten a cent of the moneys received, nor has he ever
asked for any, no matter how difficult a situation he might have
been in. Not one of our closest friends has ever received more than
any other emigre, and no one possessing any source of funds at all
has ever gotten a sou.

If D[ronke] has already left, open the letter, read it, and forward
it to him.

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

London, July 27 [1850]

Dear Weydemeyer:

Send Naut money. The man is an honest jackass. I’ll explain the
whole thing to you some other time. You mustn’t take offense at
my wife’s excited letters. She is nursing, and our situation here is so
extremely miserable that the breaking of one’s patience is pardona-
ble. . . .

This is a day of great significance. It is possible that the Cabinet
will fall today. Then a real revolutionary movement will commence
here. It is quite likely that we ourselves will be the first victims of

\f\RX AND ENGELS

2 °

the Tories. I dare say «e have been marked on. tor
a long time now.

deportation for
Yours,

K. Marx

ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER Ma „ chcstcr , Jun e , 9 . ,85,

Dear Hans: f w hich I at last learned

u ‘°" E mou8h - " 1

begun ,o bone up on miliury

affairs on which 1 have found fairly good material here for a begin
nin „ a ’ t any rat e. The enormous importance that the partte mihtaire
rmifitary aspectl will have in the next movement, an old inclination
If mine,' my articles on the Hungarian War in the [ Neue ^ /, ^ c/ ^
Zeitung, and finally my glorious adventures in Baden have
impelled me to this study, and I want to work in this field at least
enough to be able to express a theoretical opinion without disgiac-

ine myself too much. , . ,

The material available here-dealing with the Napoleonic and,
to some extent, with the Revolutionary campaigns-presupposes
the knowledge of a mass of detail, which I do not know at all or
know onlv very superficially, and about which one can obtain only
very superficial information, laboriously unearthed, or no in 01 -
mation at all. Self-instruction is always nonsense, and unless one
follows up a thing systematically, one won’t achieve anything worth-
while. You will get a better idea of what I really need if I remind
vou that— aside from my promotion [to adjutant] in Baden— I never
got any further than a Royal Prussian Landwehr bombardier; thus,
to understand the campaigns I lack the intermediate schooling,
which is provided in Prussia by the examination for promotion to
lieutenant, in the various branches of the service.

What I mean are not the details of military drill, which are of
no use to me at all, as I am finally convinced by now that my
blindness 1 makes me unfit for active service. What I need is a
general survey of the elementary knowledge required in the various
branches of the service, with as much detail as is required for an
understanding and a correct evaluation of historical facts of a
military nature. Thus, for example: elementary tactics; theory of
fortifications, more or less historically, covering the various systems

1 See pp. 201 fn., 262, passim.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

from Vauban down to the modern system of forts detaches [detached
foils], togethei with a study of field fortifications and other matters
within the province of the engineers, such as the various types of
bi idges, etc., as well as a general history of military science and the
changes produced by the evolution and perfection of arms and of
the methods of using them. Then something thorough on artillery,
as I’ve forgotten a lot and many things I don’t know at all, as well
as other requirements that don’t come to mind at the moment, but
that you most certainly know.

Please give me the sources for all these elementary questions, and
do so in such a way that I can procure the books at once. What I
would like to have are works from which I could learn the
contemporary general status of the various branches, on the one
hand, and the existing differences between the various modern
armies on the other. For example, differences in the design of field-
gun carriages, etc., the varying tables of organization of divisions,
army corps, etc. I should particulary like to study all the details of
the organization of armies, the supply system for hospitals, and the
materiel required for any army.

This will give you a general idea of what 1 need and what
books you should recommend. I suspect that in handbooks of this
sort German military literature has more serviceable works than the
French or the English. It is a matter of course that I am interested
in knowing practical matters, what actually exists, not the systems
or hobbyhorses of unrecognized geniuses. As far as artillery is con-
cerned, Bern’s handbook is probably best.

\V hatever I find here by way of books on the history of war in
modern times— I am more or less uninterested in the military history
of previous eras, and for that I have the old Montecucculi— is in
French or English, of course. Outstanding among the latter is the
history of the Peninsular War by Lieutenant General William
Napier— by far the best military-historical writing I have read up
to this time. If you don’t know it and can get it over there,
it is worth reading (History of the War in the Peninsula and
the South of France, six volumes). I have no German books at all,
but I must get some— the first to come to mind are Willisen and
Clausewitz. What about them, which one is worth the trouble and
which is not? Theoretically as well as historically? As soon as I
have made some more progress, I shall study the campaigns of 1848-
1849 thoroughly, especially the Italian and the Hungarian cam-
paigns. Do you perhaps know of a more or less official, or at least
fairly objective, report on the Baden affair as seen from the Prussian
side?

MARX AND ENGELS

t i ij iji. m have vou recommend good special
Furthermore, I should like to , enough for the

maps of Germany, not too expensn , Jall Wurttemberg,

study of the campaigns subsequent to 1/92 Prussia f or

Bavaria, Austria for 1801-H.09, ‘ A’ j or jg,, Lombardy,

1806-1807 and 1813, Northeastern have the big Stieler

Hungary, Schleswig-Holstein, and Bclg )• , f the battles

,„a,r bm it is witoU, inadequate I to e to .plans o ^ ^ ^

in Germany, not too dear, but reliable. , ke

Do you know Monsieur Jomim, about whom
such a fuss? I know of him only through M Thieis ’ ^°
plagiarized him unscrupulously, as everyone knows. This litde
Thfers is one of the most barefaced liars in existence-no * . * smgje
battle are the figures he gives correct. But since M. Jomim later
went over to the Russians, it might be thought that
for reducing the exploits de la bravoure fran^aise [exploits of French
valor] to less superhuman dimensions than M. 1 hiers, in w
book one Frenchman always beats two enemies p £

Address: Ermen and Engels, Manchester.

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

[London] June 27, 1051

Dear Hans:

... If it is dangerous for you to remain in Germany, you ought
to come here. If you can live in Germany quietly, however, it is
better to stay there, of course. For manpower is needed there moie
than here.

Yours,

K. M.

England’s foreign trade is at least one-third of its total
trade — even more after the abolition of the Corn Laws. But Herr
Christ’s whole argument isn’t worth anything. 1

*A. Christ was the author of a pamphlet, Ueber den gegenwdrtigen Stand der
Frage der Schutzzolle [On the Present Status of the Problem of Protective Tariffs],
published in 1851; Weydemeyer wrote a pamphlet attacking Christ’s position,
entitled Ueber die Stellung des Proletariats zu den jetzigen Bewegungen der
Bourgeoisie [On the Attitude of the Proletariat to the Present Movements of the
Bnurtreoisie 1 .

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

Even Pinto pointed out that if ten-tenths were required for certain
objects, the last tenth was just as important as the previous nine-
tenths. Even if we assume that England’s foreign trade is only one-
quarter (which isn’t true) , it is beyond doubt that without it the
other three-quarters could not exist; so much the more so the four
quarters which make up the digit 1.

The democrats have long been accustomed not to let an oppor-
tunity pass without compromising themselves, making laughing-
stocks of themselves, and paying for it dearly. . . .

It might be well for this period of quiet to last a few years more;
all this 1848 democracy must be given time to rot away. No matter
how untalented our governments, they are still shining lights com-
pared to these dozen vainglorious jackasses. Adieu!

I am usually at the British Museum from 9 o’clock in the morning
to 7 o’clock at night. The material I am working on has so damned
many ramifications that I won’t be able to finish it for another six
to eight weeks, in spite of all my efforts. Then there are always the
practical interruptions, unavoidable in the miserable conditions
under which one vegetates here. But despite it all the job is rapidly
approaching completion. One must break off somewhere or other by
main force. The democratic simpletons, to whom enlightenment
comes ‘‘from above,” naturally don’t require such exertions. Why
should they, these Sunday’s children, trouble themselves with eco-
nomic and historical material! . . .

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

[London] August 2, 1851

Dear Weydemeyer:

I have just received your letter from Engels and hasten to reply.
I should, of course, have very much liked to see you and talk with
you before your departure— since it was impossible to keep you here.

But once you are going to America, you can’t be doing so at a
more opportune moment, both to find a means of existence over
there as well as to be useful to our party.

For it is as good as certain that you will get a job as editor with
the New-Yorker Staatszeitung. It was previously offered to Lupus
[nickname of Wilhelm Wolff]. He is enclosing a letter to Reichhelm,
who is one of the owners of the paper. That much for practical
matters. But you mustn’t lose any time.

Now, another point. Herr Heinzen, together with the worthy
Ruge, is blowing his trumpet in the New-Yorker Schnellpost every

MARX AND t - c ulriy against me, Engels etc.

«* against <*%*££ £ use tin* l-fj ”£££%

6^^trt2Se»“

” H*„u become an editor trc

ior yoor *F^ "SSTftlS W-- » » «J» — »
the Staatszeitung is the © uropean government, Rug®-

to shut up the member o^e ^ | hcre is nothing Id want
Your article, aimed at Ch . 8 . factory regions workers

to change in it; I out of their chtldren.

actually marry m order to squeeze

This is deplorable, but it « * ^ ccs are distressing indeed.

You can imagine that my c on Uke this for long-The

It will be the end of my wife S° struggle , are weather

never-ending worries the {Xitt es who have n«*r even

out. And then the infamies y PPJ w take reV enge for their
attempted to attack me o ^ an d spreading the most

impotence by impugning Willich, Schapper, Ruge, and a

unspeakable infamies about m-™ ialize(i in this. Some

number of other democr at c ra £ m J them to gtart working
one need only arrive from the busy in this campaign,

on him at once, so that he ir i barrister Schramm met

A few days ago the lllustno 1 & began to whisper in

an acquaintance on thert^t and ^ everybo dy agrees

his ear. No matter whe „ r tus who has the greatest pros-

that Marx is perdu [throug ]• ’ »» ^ nd that’s how they all

pect of success, will have him s 10 ■ don't let that

behave. I, of course, would ™ menV , but you can

so,, of thing disturb me ■"”V™,kb, ^“Xleed in the most
understand that my wife, v nd whose nervous

dismal bourgeois poverty tan morntng ^ stupid go-

system is upset, is not helped by the fact ba ever, ' ' r

betweens bring her the pesuferous vapon . of tte demc«
pools. The tactlessness of some people in this respect

a ”More g ove,, this is not a matter of parries. The great men, despite

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

their pretended differences of opinion, are busy here doing nothing
but confirming their own importance to one another. No revolution
has ever brought to the surface such riffraff. When you are in New
York, go to A. Dana [Charles Anderson Dana] of the New York
Tribune and give him my regards and regards from Freiligrath.
Perhaps he may be of some use to you. Write me as soon as you
arrive, but always at Engels’ address, since he can best bear the
postal fees. ... If you can stay in New York, you are not far from
Europe, and with the total suppression of the press in Germany, it
is only from over there that a battle can be waged in the press.

Yours,

K. Marx

ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER

Manchester, August 7, 1851

Dear Weydemeyer:

Many thanks for your communication. I would be greatly obliged
if you could send me more information from Hofstetter’s book. But
I thought you might have remembered the titles of some manuals
and various military textbooks; what I particularly need are the
simplest and most ordinary material: what is required for the en-
sign’s and lieutenant’s examinations and, for that very reason, is
everywhere taken for granted. I obtained the book by Decker while
I was in Switzerland, in a poor French translation and without
maps, but Marx mislaid it and I doubt he will be able to find it.
I shall get an atlas myself, but I still need a map of Hungary. I know
that the Austrian General Staff issued some works on this subject.
Let me know whether your map is good enough for this and how
much it costs. At worst, it is probably better than Stieler’s big atlas.
As for Baden, especially the Baden-Swiss Rhine frontier, I kept
good enough maps of that area from the time of our campaign. I
shall find out the prices from Weerth, who is now living in Ham-
burg again, and shall then decide on what to buy. But, I repeat, I
shall be very glad to have you get me some more material.

That you are going to America is bad, but I really don’t know
what other advice to give you if you can’t find anything in Switzer-
land. There’s nothing much doing in London, and Lupus still hasn’t
found a thing to do. He is looking for a job, and I am trying to
get him one here, but without success up to now. The competition
in the musical field over here is enormous. Aprts tout [after all].
New York doesn’t seem to be very far away from England and,

MARX AND ENGELS

especially, from here, when one sees the steamers regularly making
the crossing from Wednesday of one week to Saturday of the next,
and they hardly ever take the full ten days. In New York you will
meet the little Red Becker. Up to recently he was in the mail depart-
ment of the Arbeiter Zeitung, but I don't know whether he's still
there, since I haven't heard from him for a long time. His last
address was 24 North William Street, upstairs; if you don't know his
present address, you can most likely get it from Li£vre, Shakespeare
Hotel, or at the Staatszeitung. Moreover, there's a lot to be done in
New York, and a regular representative of our party, who also has
theoretical education, is needed there badly. You will find elements
enough. Your greatest handicap, however, will be the fact that the
useful Germans who are worth anything are easily Americanized and
abandon all hope of returning home; and then there are the special
American conditions: the ease with which the surplus population is
drained off to the farms, the necessarily rapid and rapidly growing
prosperity of the country, which makes bourgeois conditions look
like a beau ideal to them, and so forth. The Germans over there
who think of going back are mostly worthless fellows, revolution-
exploiters d la Mettemich and Heinzen; the less important they are,
the more contemptible they are. Besides, you will find the whole
patriotic Reich mob in New York; I have no doubt that you will
be able to establish yourself there. Outside of New York the only
endurable place is St. Louis; Philadelphia and Boston are terrible
provincial holes. It would be splendid if you could manage to
establish a newspaper of your own; otherwise try to get a job with
the New-Yorker Staatszeitung , which is very well disposed toward
us — its European correspondence has always been under our control.

It is best to send correspondence from over there through me; I
then let the firm pay for the postage. . . .

In any event, write me once again before your departure. Let me
know the name of the ship on which you are sailing, for then I shall
be able to see by the local paper when it arrives in New York.
From New York send me your address at once. Marx's address is
28, Dean Street, Soho Square, London.

Best regards,

Yours,

F. E.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

[London] September 11 [1851]

Dear Weydemeyer:

. . . Signor Mazzini has also had to learn that this is the time of
the dissolution of "democratic" provisional governments. The
minority has resigned from the Italian committee after violent
battles. They are supposed to be the more advanced ones.

I consider Mazzini's policy fundamentally wrong. By inciting
Italy to a breach now he is working entirely in the interest of
Austria. On the other hand, he fails to appeal to that part of Italy
that has been oppressed for centuries, the peasants, and thus pre-
pares new resources for the counter-revolution. M. Mazzini knows
only the cities with their liberal aristocracy and their citoyens
dclairds [enlightened citizens]. The material needs of the Italian
rural population— as impoverished and systematically enfeebled and
besotted as the Irish— are, of course, too low for the heaven-in-words
of his cosmopolitan-neo-Catholic-ideological manifestos. But it would
have required courage, to be sure, to tell the bourgeoisie and the
aristocracy that the first step toward the independence of Italy is the
complete emancipation of the peasants and the transformation of
their sharecropping system into free bourgeois property. Mazzini
seems to think that a loan of ten million francs is more
revolutionary than winning over ten million human beings. I am
very much afraid that if worse comes to the worst the Austrian
government will change the system of land ownership itself and
reform it in the "Galician" manner. . . .*

Yours,

K. Marx

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

London, October 16, 1851

Dear Weydemeyer:

I wrote to A. Charles Dana [Charles Anderson Dana], one of
the editors of the New York Tribune, and also enclosed a letter
from Freiligrath, in which he recommends you. Hence, all you
have to do is to go to him and mention our names.

1 After the annexation of Galicia, the Austrian government abrogated many
of the feudal privileges of the Galician aristocracy in order to play off the
peasants against the rebellious aristocrats in a demagogic fashion, thus creating
a social basis for the exploitation of this province, which was still dominated
by the big landowners. Austria had introduced a system of the bitterest national
oppression in Northern Italy.

MARX AND ENGELS

You ask me about a statistical handbook. I recommend The Com-
mercial Dictionary by MacCulloch, 1845, since it provides eco-
nomic information as well. There are also more recent works, such
as the books by MacGregor, whose statistical handbooks are, I dare
say, the best in all of Europe. But they are very expensive. You will
doubtless find them in one of the New York libraries. MacCulloch,
on the other hand, is the kind of manual that anyone writing for the
newspapers must own. For England, in particular, I can also recom-
mend: Porter, The Progress of the Nation, new edition, 1851.

For the history of trade in general: Tooke, History of Prices,
3 vols., covering up to 1848. For North America I especially recom-
mend MacGregor, who has written a special statistical work on the
United States. For Germany: Freiherr von Reden, Vergleichende
k'ulturstatistiken. For France: Moreau.

I have one more commission for you. At the request of an ex-
German Catholic priest, Koch (whom you can locate at the Staats-
zeitung, for which he writes from time to time) , I sent him 20
copies of the Manifesto [Communist Manifesto] (in German) and
one copy of the English translation, authorizing him to publish it
as a pamphlet with a preface by Harney, attached to the English
translation. After this I didn’t hear a thing from Koch. First, ask
him to explain this extremely suspicious silence after sending me
so detailed a letter; second, take from him the English translation
and see whether it cannot be issued as a pamphlet— in other words,
printed, distributed, and sold. It stands to reason that the profits,
if any, belong to you; all I want is 20-50 copies for my own use. . . .

Write soon. Regards from my wife, from me, and from all your
friends to you and your wife.

I trust you have taken the ocean voyage well and that your affairs
in the United States will prosper.

Yours,

K. M.

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

, London, October 31, 1851

Dear Weydemeyer:

I am sending you my second letter to America. After mature
deliberation of this matter with Lupus, I decided that we might
arrange one transaction together.

Ftrsf. The old A eue Rheinische Zeitung was not widely circulated
merica. f you could get hold of some bourgeois or manage to

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

obtain the necessary credit from the owner of a printshop and
a paper dealer, it would be profitable to publish a sort of pocket
library of articles from the Neue Rheinische Zeitung — little book-
lets, like those that Becker published in Cologne. For instance,
W. Wolff’s “The Silesian Billion”; Engels’ “Hungary”; my “Prussian
Bourgeoisie”; some of Weerth’s feuilletons, etc. If you can’t find
them over there, I shall send you the articles, choosing those that are
most suitable; you will have to write a brief general foreword to
this Pocket Library of the “Neue Rheinische Zeitung,” as well as
footnotes or postscripts to the individual booklets, wherever you
feel they are necessary.

Second: You could publish Engels’ and my articles against K.
Heinzen that appeared in the Deutsche Briisseler Zeitung in the
same format and with explanatory notes. I think they would sell
very well.

We would share the profits remaining after the costs of produc-
tion have been covered.

Third: I have received a number of inquiries and orders from
America concerning the six published numbers of my Revue } but
I have not entered into any arrangements, as I do not trust the
rogues over there. You might publish an announcement that they
can be obtained from you, but you must have a fair number of
orders before they are shipped out from here.

Fourth: The little library I spoke of above might include timely
pamphlets written by you as well as by us when the occasion calls.
From the commercial standpoint it is safer and more convenient,
of course, to begin with material that is ready and at hand. You
could wage the necessary polemics, against the Right or the Left,
in your little prefaces and postscripts.

And so I suggest that you become a book publisher. Less money
is needed for this than for a newspaper, while you would be ac-
complishing the same ends. You will be spared the long, time-killing
preparatory work involved in getting out a newspaper. I think that
if you outline this plan in the proper way to Reich, who has money,
he will agree to go into this business with you.

My family, as well as Freiligrath, Lupus, and the rest, send your
family our best regards.

Yours,

K. Marx

l Neue Rheinische Zeitung— Politisch-dkonomische Revue .

MARX AND ENGELS

3 °

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

[London] December 19 , 1851

Dear Weydemeyer:

I, that is Engels, received your letter the day before yesterday.

First of all, my best New Year’s wishes for you and your wife.
My wife also sends you hers.

I am now at my desk, working on an article for you. Your request
came too late, and that is why I was unable to comply with it that
very day. On Tuesday (December 23 ) you will be sent: (i) “The
Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,” by K. Marx; (2) “The
Coup d’Etat in France,” by F. Wolff; and (3) “Nemesis,” by Wilhelm
Wolff. Engels will send you his article — about Prussia, I think — by
today’s mail, perhaps. Freiligrath has nothing ready yet, but he
authorizes you to use his name as one of your contributors.

Negotiations are going on with Weerth, as well as with Eccarius.

You are now established in the United States for a year at least.
“It” [the revolution] won’t start on May 2, 1852.

I think you should wait with your first number 1 until the articles
listed above arrive. The difference is only five days anyhow. For the
forthcoming numbers you can announce the serial publication in
article form of a work of mine: “Neueste Offenbarungen des
Sozialismus, oder Idee generate de la Revolution au XIX siecle par
P. /. Proudhon . [Latest Revelations of Socialism, or the General
Notion of Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, by P. /. Prou-
dhon.] Critique by K. M.” . . .

Tout a toi [At your service]

K. Marx

If you are not already bound by contract, don’t buy the Arbeiter-
republik [Workers' Republic ] from the wretched Weitling. You will
gain about 200 Straubinger [apprentices], but you will lose the great
reading public. Always appear under the old name. Regie generate
[general rule].

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

[London] January 1, 1852

Dear Weywey:

Happy New Year! Best wishes to your wife from my wife and me.
It is only today that I am able to send you the article, as I was

‘ Of We Revolution , a weekly published briefly by Weydemeyer in New York

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 31

interrupted not only by the tempestuous events of the time, but
even more so by private affairs. From now on — regularity.

Lupus 1 is seriously ill and therefore hasn’t been able to send you
a thing as yet. I considered the article by Red Wolff to be unsuit-
able and therefore did not send it off.

In case — let's hope it xuon't be the case — you have to put off your
venture for a time owing to financial circumstances, give the article
to Dana, so that he can have it translated into English for his paper.
I hope, however, that this won’t be necessary.

Give Dana my regards. Tell him that I received his paper and his
letter and shall send him a new article next week. As for the num-
bers of the Revue, please write me how big a market, roughly, you,
think I can count on in America. I do not have them here; I should
have to get them from Hamburg, and this involves well-known
difficulties of a financial nature.

I shall send you Notes to the People by our friend Ernest Jones,
the most influential leader of the British party. They will be a
veritable treasure for you, since they can be used as fillers for your
paper. Send me at once and keep on sending me in the future a few
copies of your weekly.

Salut et fraternity Yours,

K. Marx

Yesterday I hammered away at Freiligrath, and he promised me
that he would cook up a poem for you on the latest events.

MRS. MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

[London, ca. January 10, 1852]

Dear Mr. Wedemeyer:

My husband has been very sick all week, in bed most of the
time. . . .

Karl is too weak now to write you, which is why he asks me to tell
you that you ought to write in your newspaper about our poor
friends in Cologne, especially since Kinkel's party, together with the
court-writers and mongrels of the Lithographische Korrespondenz,
is deliberately keeping completely silent about all their suffering
and their very existence. This is all the more despicable inasmuch
as Kinkel owes his popularity mainly to Becker and Burgers, and
the paper they published at the time. 2 And here these men are
languishing in jail, being treated abominably, and now they’ll have

1 Nickname for Wilhelm Wolff, to whom Vol. I of Capital is dedicated.

8 The Wcstdeutsche Zeitung.

MARX AND ENGELS

3 *

to serve 3D extra three months, while the §reat men of the future
are coining thousands in the name of the new revolution, and are
already dividing up their future governmental posts.

How does your dear wife feel after her terrible journey? How are
your children getting on? Have you all gotten acclimatized, if only
a bit?

Best regards,

Cordially yours,

Jenny Marx

Lupus is feeling better again. He too is sending something along
soon, as is Engels. An urgent request has also been sent to Weerth.
Red Wolff has married, and since he is now on his honeymoon, he
can’t send you anything for the time being.

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

London, January 16, 1852

Dear Weydemeyer:

Today I got out of bed for the first time in two weeks. From this
you realize that my indisposition, which isn’t entirely over even
now, was a serious one. That is why, with the best intentions,
I wasn’t able to send you the third installment of my article on
Bonaparte this week.

On the other hand, I am enclosing a poem and a private letter by
Freiligrath. Now I ask you to: (1) Have the poem printed carefully;
the stanzas separated at adequate intervals, and the whole thing
printed without an eye to saving space. Poetry loses much when the
verses are printed all crowded together. (2) Write a friendly letter to
Freiligrath. Don t be afraid to compliment him, for all poets, even
the best of them, are plus ou moins des courtisanes, et il faut les
cajoler, pour les faire chanter [courtisans, more or less, and they
have to be cajoled to make them sing]. Our Ffreiligrath] is the
kindest, must unassuming man in private life, who conceals un
esprit tres fin et tres railleur [a very subtle and mocking spirit]
underneath his genuine simplicity, and whose pathos is "genuine”
without making him “uncritical” and “superstitious.” He is a real
revolutionary and an honest man through and through — praise
that I would not mete out to many. Nevertheless, a poet -no
matter what he may be as a man-requires applause, admiration.

1 think it lies in the very nature of the species. I am telling you

f 1 . 1S mere 7 , t0 ca |l.y° ur attention to the fact that in your corre-
pondence with Freiligrath you must not forget the difference be-

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

tween a “poet” and a “critic.” Moreover, it is very nice of him to
address his poetic letter directly to you. I think this will give you
something by way of contrast in New York.

I don't know whether I can send you another article today. Pieper
promised me an article for you. He hasn't appeared up to the
present time, but if he docs, the article will still have to pass
muster— does it go into the fire, or is it worthy of making the trip
across the ocean?

I am still too weak to write any longer. More in a week. Regards
from my family to yours.

Lupus is also not entirely well as yet, and that is why he hasn't
sent anything.

Yours,

K. Marx

. . . The case of Daniels, Becker, et al. 1 wasn't heard at the Janu-
ary session of the court either, on the pretext that the investigation
is so difficult that it has to be begun all over again, from the
beginning. They have been in jail for nine months already.

ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER

Manchester, January 23, 1852

Dear Weydemeyer:

. . . For the present I am here in Manchester to stay, luckily in
a very independent job and with many advantages; Marx and other
friends come to visit me now and then from London, and so long
as Weerth is in Bradford, we have established a regular switchback
service between the two cities, since the rail trip takes only two
and a half hours. But he will probably be leaving soon; he can't
stand that filthy hole Bradford, and he hasn't the composure to stay
in any one place for a whole year. I am thinking of a trip to the
United States either next summer or, if no change occurs in the
interim, during the following summer: to New York and, especially,
to New Orleans. But that depends on my old man, not on me, and
also upon the state of the cotton market. 2 . . .

In France affairs are proceeding splendidly. Yesterday evening
La Patrie reported that the establishment of a Ministry of Police
for Maupas will be announced in today's Moniteur. De Morny, who,
together with Fould and others, represents the material interests of
the bourgeoisie (but not its participation in political power) in the

l The Cologne Communist Trial. See pp. 31-32, 36, 49-52.

a It was 1888 before Engels visited America. See pp. 200-01.

MARX AND ENGELS

Cabinet, will be fired, and there will begin the rule of the pure
adventurers Maupas, Persigny and Co. This^ will open the era of
imperial, true socialism. The first socialist measure will be the con-
fiscation *of the property of Louis Philippe, since the document by
which he transferred his property to his children on August 6, 1830,
instead of presenting it to the state in accordance with the tradi-
tional custom, is juridically invalid. The Due d'Aumale’s share of
the Cond£ fortune will also be seized. If events unfold rapidly
enough, next Saturday's steamship will bring the news. They are
still hunting down insurgents like wild beasts in the southern
departments.

The British press, and now and then the Augsburg Allgemeine
Zeitung , is the only dependable source for French news. The best
information on France is found in the London Daily News , which
I am therefore specially recommending to you. The Tribune sub-
scribes to it, and you can also get it elsewhere; it is too expensive to
subscribe to it yourself. You can certainly get it easily in the cafes
of the business sections of the city.

Dronke will probably call on you soon; I have heard that all
those who have to quit Switzerland are being shipped across France
to America, and not to England. Dronke is supposed to leave now;
he is probably in hiding, since nothing has been heard of him. . . .

Here are some additional points by way of comment on the
possibility of invading Britain, to clear up the matter for you:

1. Any landing west of Portsmouth runs the risk of being driven
into the angle of Cornwall — hence impracticable.

2. Any landing further to the north of, or too close to, Dover
runs the risk of suffering the same fate between the Thames and
the sea.

3. The initial objectives of the operation would be London and
Woolwich. Detachments would have to be assigned to take Ports-
mouth and Sheerness (Chatham). A strong garrison would have to
be kept in London, with strong detachments between London and
the coast. With a landing force of 150,000 men, this would require
at least 60,000 (and even that would be insufficient). Hence, 90,000
men would be available for the advance.

4. The second objective of the operation would be Birmingham
(the arms factories are located there). The area south of Bristol
Channel and the Wash would have to be secured, i.e., the line from
Gloucester to King’s Lynn, together with a powerful attack on
Birmingham. No matter how weak and overwhelmed the enemy’s
army might be, I think that to deal with it with a force of 90,000
men would be impossible. But even if this should succeed, it would

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

not gain a tenable defensive position, especially if British sea power
came into play. The line is too long and too weak. That is why
the advance would have to be maintained.

5. The third objective of the operation would be Manchester.
The whole area south of the Mersey (or the Ribble) and the Aire
(the Humber) must be secured, and this line held. It is shorter and
easier to defend; but here too the invading forces would be greatly
weakened by the detaching of troops. Since the defense would still
have enough territory and adequate facilities to reorganize its
forces, the invaders would have to either advance or soon retreat.

6. The first line that could be held in the extremely narrow
north of England is either the Tees or, even better, the Tyne,
from Carlisle to Newcastle (the line of the Roman Wall, erected
against the Piets). But then the defenders would still have the
agricultural, industrial, and commercial resources of the Scottish
Lowlands.

7. The conquest of England proper may be considered com-
plete, even though only temporarily, only when Glasgow and
Edinburgh are taken, the defenders are forced back into the High-
lands, and the invaders occupy the excellent, short, strong line
between the Clyde and the Firth of Forth, which is adequately
provided with rail lines to the rear.

But the real difficulties — the difficulties of maintaining the posi-
tion — begin after the conquest, since communications with France
will certainly be cut off.

How many men would be required, under these conditions, to
conquer the whole country from Dover to the Clyde and to set up
a decent front on the Clyde?

I think 400,000 would not be too high a figure.

These considerations are too detailed for the newspaper, and I am
setting them down for you solely as a professional man. Take a look
at the map of England and tell me what you think of this. This is
one side of the question that the British lose sight of completely. 1

The mails are closing. I have to conclude. Regards to your wife.

Yours,

F. E.

X A panicky fear of war and invasion swept England after the rise of Louis
Bonaparte to power in France.

MARX AND ENGELS

ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER

[Manchester] January 30, 1852

Dear Weydemeyer:

... My expectations concerning the confiscation of Louis-
Philippe’s property and the formation of the Persigny cabinet were
borne out sooner than could have been expected. If the information
channels are in good working order, this news should have arrived
in New York by Liverpool steamer together with my letter. 1 The
letter had hardly been sent off when the telegraphic reports of the
event reached us here. So much the better-affairs are going splen-
didly, and they will go even better.

The situation of the Cologne prisoners is very distressing. Since
there is absolutely no evidence against them, the criminal court
has neither set them free nor turned them over for jury trial, but
returned the case to the initial examining magistrate for a new
inquiry! In other words, they will remain in jail for the present —
without books, without letters, without communication with one
another or with the outside world— until a new supreme court has
been created. We are trying to expose this infamy in the British
bourgeois press.

Best regards,

Yours,

F. E.

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

[London] February 13, 1852

Dear Weydemeyer:

Enclosed the continuation of my article. The thing is expanding
as I work on it, and you will get two more articles on this subject.
[‘‘The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.”] Besides this, I
am sending you something on Signor Mazzini in the next mail.
Copies of your paper should have arrived long ago. In order to write
for a paper, one must get to see it, as you know; and if my collabo-
rators see their things in print, it will increase their zeal.

I enclose a note on the situation of our friends in jail in Cologne.
Make an article out of this note.

They have been imprisoned for ten months by now.

In November the case came before the court of inquiry, which
decided to hold them for jury trial. After this the case was trans-
ferred to the criminal court. The latter handed down its decision
1 See pp. 33-34.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

just before Christmas; it reads: “In view of the absence of facts
constituting a crime, there is no basis for sustaining the indictment"
(but in view of the importance that the government attaches to this
case, we are afraid we might lose our jobs if the judicial prosecution
of the defendants were dismissed), “we therefore return the case
to the examining magistrate for the elucidation of various matters."
The principal reason for the delay is the government's conviction
that it would be disgracefully defeated in a jury trial. In the interim
it hopes to set up a supreme court to try cases of treason or, at the
very least, to abolish trial by jury for all political offenses — a bill
to that effect has already been introduced into the Prussian Upper
House. Our friends are held in solitary confinement, isolated from
one another and from the world outside; they are not allowed mail
or visitors, and they don't even get books, which have never been
denied to common criminals in Prussia.

The brazen verdict of the criminal court would have been impos-
sible if the press had been in the least interested in the case. But the
liberal papers, like the Kolnische Zeitung, kept silent out of coward-
ice, while the “democratic" ones (including the lithographed Kor-
respondenz, which Kinkel is printing with American funds) were
silent out of hatred of the Communists, fear of losing their own
authority, and envy of the “new" martyrs. That is the gratitude
of these brutes toward the Neue Rheinische Zeitung , which always
supported these democratic scoundrels in their conflicts with the
government (Temme, for instance, and others). That is Kinkel's
gratitude to the Westdeutsche Zeitung, where Becker made a man of
him and Burgers sheltered him. 1 Canaillel These men must be fought
to a finish.

Best regards from my family to yours.

Yours,

K. Marx

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

[London] February 20, 1852

Dear Weydemeyer:

This week I can't send you anything for the simple reason that
for more than a week I have been so plagued by money worries that
I haven't even been able to continue my studies at the library, much
less write articles.

But I hope that I can send you the fifth and sixth articles, which
1 A play on words: “Becker ihn gebacken und Burgers ihn geborgen hat.”

MARX AND ENGELS

3 8

comprise the concluding portion of the work, 1 on Tuesday (the
24th) and Friday (the 27th), respectively.

I received your letter with the postscript by Cluss. You faced two
particular obstacles: 1. unemployment in New York; 2. the stormy
west winds that carried the ships sailing from London to New York
off their course. For except during the first few days, articles were
sent you from England (by me, by Engels, by Freiligrath, by Ec-
carius, and others) as regularly as any paper could have wished. On
the other hand, the people over here cooled off somewhat, because
many ships arrived from America without word from you. 1 did
not think it necessary to inform anyone, with the exception of
Engels and Lupus, about the temporary suspension of your paper.
That would have cooled off the contributors even more.

If you want to get regular support from here, you must fulfill the
following conditions:

1. Write every week, indicating the dates of all the letters of ours
that you have received.

2. Keep us currently informed of local conditions, regularly send-
ing over pertinent documents, clippings, etc.

You know, my friend, how hard it is to write for a paper appear-
ing on the other side of the ocean, without knowing its reading pub-
lic, etc But if you comply with the foregoing conditions, I guarantee
you the necessary articles. I am standing behind all of them with a
whip, and I’ll know how to make them work. In Germany they have
also promised me to send you articles and to write for your paper.
If I only knew that the paper would continue, I’d have an unpaid
correspondent available in Paris, who would write for you weekly.

I am writing this man — he is one of my best and most intelligent
friends. The only trouble is that no one wants to do work in vain,
while timely reports lose all value if they are not printed im-
mediately upon receipt. And, moreover, since you can’t pay, it is all
the more necessary to convince people that they are doing effective
party work and that their letters are not lying around in some desk
drawer.

I think you are making a mistake in waiting for your mail to be
delivered to your home; instead of that you ought to notify the post-
office that when ships arrive you will regularly pick up your letters
yourself, as all newspapers do. That will make it easier to avoid mis-
understandings and delays. . . .

As for Dana, I think it was foolish of him to print Simon’s article.
If it were financially possible for me to do so, I would have im-
mediately declared that I refused to write for him any longer. He

1 The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

may allow attacks to be made on Engels and me, but not by that
sort of grimy schoolboy. It is ridiculous for him to permit "Agita-
tion” and "Emigration” — those two fictions existing solely in news-
paper columns — to be presented to the American public as historical
realities, and, what is more, that it be done by an empty-headed
individual who granted Germany a Prussian Kaiser, the March
societies and the Imperial Regent Vogt and now would like to hand
the people over to himself, together with his accomplices. Parliament,
and a somewhat altered imperial constitution. There is nothing
more ridiculous than this rascal making a statesman’s pronounce-
ment from his Alpine heights. I thought Dana had more tact. Lud-
wig Simon von Trier! When will that fellow give up this parlia-
mentary title of nobility?

You realize, of course, that in London these rascals have fallen out
completely. The only thing that holds them together to some extent
is the hope of the saviour’s funds of the Christ Gottfried Kinkel. On
the other side there are the idiot Ruge together with Ronge and two
or three other jackasses, concealing their idle vegetating under the
word “Agitation.” It’s as if a stagnant swamp were to call itself "the
open sea.”

At present, Europe is not concerned with these inanities, but with
other matters. After the 2d of December 1 and after the arrival here
of new revolutionary elements from France, even Ledru-Rollin has
shrunk like an empty balloon. Mazzini is making ultrareactionary
speeches; I shall send you an analysis of one of them in the near
future.

As for Ernest Jones’s Notes to the People, where you will find the
everyday history of the contemporary British proletariat, I shall
send it to you as soon as the state of my finances permits. I have to
pay eight shillings to send a package to America.

Give Cluss my best wishes. We are waiting for a letter from him
with great impatience. Why didn’t you send us his statement? My
wife and I, Freiligrath and his wife, and Lupus all send our best
wishes to your wife; she has our warmest sympathy. We hope that
the new citizen of the world will come into the world safely in the
New World.

Adieu, Your

K. Marx

If nothing comes of the newspaper, couldn’t you publish my bro-
chure in separate issues, each one printer’s sheet long, or in the parts
I sent you? Considerable time will be lost otherwise.

1 On December 2, 1852, Louis Bonaparte was proclaimed hereditary "Emperor
of the French,” with the title of Napoleon III.

MARX AND ENGELS

ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER

Manchester, February 27, 1852

Dear Weydemeyer:

... As for the question of a war against England, it interests me
for the present chiefly as a military problem that one tries to explain
and solve, like a problem in geometry. But I do not consider a
coalition war of this sort impossible, although now it will doubtless
be postponed as long as Derby is at the helm of the government. The
gentlemen of the Holy Alliance now evaluate their own strength
just as falsely as they did in the period of the various coalitions from
1792 to 1807. As for Russia’s dependence upon Britain: (1) It must
not be expected that the Tsar feels this dependence; and (2) though
the cessation of trade would cause a serious depression, poverty, and
the spoilage of foodstuffs, this could be stood for two or three years
just like a business crisis, which lasts about the same length of
time. Remember that in Russia money hardly circulates at all in
the rural localities, among the peasants, who comprise the over-
whelming majority of the population, and that all the necessities
of life of these barbarians can be made in every village. The cities
and the aristocracy would suffer, of course, but the foundation of
the Russian Empire is the peasantry' and the minor nobility, who
live like peasants. It would be very hard for Britain to get the
Continent to revolt; in Spain this was facilitated by the terrain,
the wide expanse, and the sparse population of the country, the
shortage of foodstuffs, and the sea, which surrounds the country
on almost all sides. But Hungary and Poland are inland countries,
while Italy, except for the islands, could hardly defend itself against
the superior forces of the coalition, even with the aid of the British
and the insurgents. Besides, Britain is unable today, and will be
unable even one year after the declaration of war, to raise the kind
of army that was sent to Spain for Wellington. And ships without
landing parties cannot gain a firm foothold anywhere.

It is really fortunate that the Tories have come to power. The
manufacturers have grown quite soft as a result of their constant
success in the field of trade policy and the continuing of prosperity.
Not a single one was interested in Parliamentary reform, even a
much wider reform than the pitiable Russell bill. Now they are
on the horns of the devil’s own dilemma, and already devilishly
apprehensive, particularly as each of the new ministers is crassly
advocating one sort of protective tariff or another. The Anti-
Gom-Law League is being re-established here. Parliamentary re-
form, extension of the suffrage, equalizing the electoral constitu-

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

encies, and secret voting have now become questions of life or death
for the industrial bourgeoisie , whereas formerly they directly inter-
ested only the lower middle class. Derby is compelled to dissolve
Parliament, and he will probably do so as soon as the military budget
and the taxes for the coming year have been voted. We shall most
likely have new elections in May. The protectionists will gain some
votes and will throw some Peelites out of Parliament. But they will
remain in the minority, and if Derby dares to introduce a straight-
forward bill for the establishment of protective tariffs, he will fall
beyond the shadow of a doubt. But he may be clever enough to put
off this question.

In any event, the British movement has come to life again.
Palmerston s dismissal was followed by the whole sequence of events
that had to occur after the unceasing Cabinet defeats during the past
session. Derby is Act II, the dissolution of Parliament will be Act III.
As for British foreign policy under Derby, it will, of course, be
reactionary too, but very little of a decisive character will occur. It
is possible that they will initiate some sort of refugee trials, but in
these trials the government will lose. Endeavors will be made to
introduce bills for the control of aliens, which will likewise fall
through. Possibly, assistance will be given to the effort to form
a coalition against Louis Napoleon, but this too will come to nought.
I he hands of the British Tories are bound, and unless they try to
re-establish the Sidmouth-Castlereagh despotism of 1815-1821— in
so doing they may burn their fingers devilishly, since the British
bourgeoisie is rabid about legality and free trade — Messrs. Con-
servatives will make laughingstocks of themselves. But Derby (while
his father was alive, he bore the title of Lord Stanley) is a hothead
and may easily resort to extreme and even unlawful measures.

Now all that is lacking is a business crisis, and ever since Derby
came to power I have had a presentiment that it will soon break
out. The free-trade measures of the British, following one another
in rapid succession, with the subsequent opening up of the Dutch
colonies, the lowering of tariffs in Spain, Sardinia, etc., and the
drop in the price of cotton (since September, 1850, cotton prices
have fallen to half the previous level) are supporting prosperity
longer than could have been previously expected. But the condi-
tion of the Indian and, in part, the American markets (much less
manufactured goods were exported to the United States last month
than during the corresponding period of the previous year) does
not give one any reason to believe that it will last much longer. If
the crisis were to break out as early as May — which is hardly likely.

MARX AND ENGELS

however - the dance would begin. Bm it will hardly break on.
before September or October.

Give my regards to your wife. Yours,

F. E.

In the near future I shall send you an article on the position of the
British industrial bourgeoisie and on the history ol trade I shall
be very busy for about another two weeks.

MRS. MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

[London, February 27, 1852]

Dear Mr. Weydemeyer: ,

F01 a week now my husband’s eyes have been hurting him so
much because of his intensive work at night— he has to spend the
day running around on domestic errands — that he is unable to write
you and I have to perform all the functions of a secretary. He asks
me to tell you that he could not look through Eccarius’ article closely
enough, and that you will have to correct the spelling errors in it:
that remarkable man writes excellently, but it is only over here that
he learned to handle words, and he doesn’t recognize periods and
commas. In addition, my husband is sending you an article by a
Hungarian, who is closely acquainted with the innermost secrets
of the Hungarian emigres. Decide for yourself whether this article
can be used and printed at the present time. In any event, the man
must be encouraged, since he has promised to send special corres-
pondence by Perczel, Szemere, and others, who are close friends of
his, later on. My husband thinks that you will have to correct the
bad grammatical errors in the article, but that the peculiarities of
style, which give it the stamp of a genuine Hungarian composition,
should not be tampered with at all. Furthermore, he asks you to
send back his articles on Napoleon 1 at once if you are unable to
print them. We may perhaps be able to place them somewhere,
translated into French, though it would be a pity, of course, to give
up the German. It would be best of all if you could manage to print
them in America, and if it were possible to distribute them in Ger-
many as well. The brochure ought to go well, no doubt, as it gives
a historical appraisal of the most important event of the present
time. I hope, dear Mr. Weydemeyer, to get good news from you,
news that your dear wife has undergone the great event, and that

1 The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

there are two newborn children in your house — your son and your
paper. I send your dear wife my most heartfelt greetings, and I
remain.

Yours sincerely,

Jenny Marx

In order not to delay matters too long, you might print each
article separately, for the problem is extremely timely. Later on
they might all be collected together. No. 5 is going off today. He is
sending off No. 6, the concluding article, next Friday. And so, I
repeat: try to make a brochure of it.

If this can’t be done, send the work back — it has to be printed in
one way or another.

Give our regards to Cluss, and write us soon how you are getting
along.

Lupus has just brought us another little article on the latest events
in London.

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

London, March 5, 1852

Dear Weywey:

. . . Your article against Heinzen, which Engels unfortunately
sent me too late, is very good, both brutal and subtle — a combina-
tion that belongs in any polemic worthy of the name. I gave this
article to Ernest Jones, and enclosed you will find a communi-
cation for you from him intended for publication. 1 As Jones
writes very illegibly, with abbreviations, and as I assume that
you are not an out-and-out Englishman as yet, I am sending you
together with the original a copy made by my wife, and at the same
time the German translation, as you must have them both printed
side by side, original and translation. After the letter from Jones
you can add the following: With regard to George Julian Harney,
who is also one of Herr Heinzen’s authorities, Harney published
our Communist Manifesto in English in his Red Republican with
a marginal note that it was "the most revolutionary document ever
given to the world,” and in his Democratic Review he translated the
wisdom "discarded” by Heinzen, to wit, the articles I wrote in the
Revue of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung on the French revolution. In

‘Weydemeyer had written an article against Heinzen in an American periodical.
The Democrat. In the letter to Weydemeyer enclosed by Marx, Jones wrote that
it was impossible for anyone with the faintest knowledge of English conditions
to ignore the class war.

MARX AND ENGELS

an article on Louis Blanc he refers his readers to these articles as the
"true criticism” of the French affair. For the rest in England there
is no need to cite only the “extremists.” If a member of Parliament
in England becomes a Minister, he has to be re-elected. So Disraeli,
the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, writes to his constituents on

“We shall endeavor to put an end to a class struggle which in
recent years has had such a harmful effect on the well-being of this
kingdom.”

On which The Times comments on March 2: If anything would
ever divide classes in this country beyond reconciliation and leave
no chance of a just and honorable peace, it would be a tax on

foreign corn.”

And to keep an ignorant “man of character” like Hemzen from
imagining that the aristocracy are for and the bourgeoisie against
corn laws, because the former want “monopoly” and the latter
“freedom” -a philistine sees contradictions only in this abstract
form - it is to be noted that in the eighteenth century the English
aristocracy were for “freedom” (of trade) and the bourgeoisie for
“monopoly” - the same relative position that we find at this very
moment between these two classes in Prussia with regard to “corn
laws.” The Neue Preussische Zeitung is the most rabid free-trader.

Finally, in your place I should in general tell the democratic
gentlemen that they would do better first to acquaint themselves
with the bourgeois literature before they presume to yap out their
contradictions of it. For instance, these gentlemen should study the
historical works of Thierry, Guizot, John Wade, etc., in order to
enlighten themselves as to the past history of classes. Before they
try to criticize the critique of political economy they should acquaint
themselves with the first elements of political economy. One has
only to open Ricardo’s great work, for example, to find these words
on the first page: “The produce of the earth — all that is derived
from its surface by the united application of labor, machinery and
capital — is divided among three classes of the community, namely,
the proprietor of the land, the owner of the stock or capital necessary
for its cultivation, and the laborers by whose industry it is culti-
vated.” 1

That bourgeois society in the United States has not yet developed
far enough to make the class struggle obvious and comprehensible
is most strikingly proved by H. C. Carey (of Philadelphia), the only
American economist of importance. He attacks Ricardo , the most

1 David Ricardo, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, 1817,
author's preface.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

classical representative (interpreter) of the bourgeoisie and the most
stoical adversary of the proletariat, as a man whose works are an
arsenal for anarchists, socialists, and all the enemies of bourgeois
society. He accuses not only him, but Malthus, Mill, Say, Torrens,
Wakefield, McCulloch, Senior, Wakley, R. Jones, etc., in short, the
economic masterminds of Europe, of tearing society apart and
paving the way for civil war by their proof that the economic bases
of the different classes must give rise to a necessary and ever-growing
antagonism between them. He tries to refute them, not like the
fatuous Heinzen, to be sure, by linking the existence of classes to
the existence of political privileges and monopolies, but by attempt-
ing to demonstrate that economic conditions— rent (landed prop
erty), profit (capital) , and wages (wage labor)— are conditions of
co-operation and harmony rather than conditions of struggle and
antagonism. All he proves, of course, is that he takes the “unde-
veloped” social conditions of the United States to be “normal”
social conditions.

As for me, no credit is due me for discovering either the existence
of classes in modern society or the struggle between them. Bourgeois
historians had described the historical development of this struggle
of the classes long before me, and bourgeois economists had por-
trayed their economic anatomy. What I did that was new was to
prove: (1) that the existence of classes is bound up only with specific
historical phases in the development of production ; (2) that the
class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat ;
(3) that this dictatorship itself only constitutes the transition to the
abolition of all classes and to a classless society . Ignorant louts like
Heinzen, who deny not only the struggle, but even the existence, of
classes, merely prove that, despite all their bloodcurdling yelps and
humanitarian airs, they regard the social conditions under which
the bourgeoisie rules as the final product, the non plus ultra [acme]
of history, and that they are merely the servitors of the bourgeoisie.
And the less these louts themselves comprehend the greatness and
the temporary necessity of the bourgeois regime, the more repulsive
is their servitude.

From the foregoing notes take whatever you consider suitable.
Moreover, Heinzen has adopted from us “centralization” instead of
his “federative republic,” etc. When the views that we are now
spreading about classes have become trite and part of the equipment
of “common sense,” the boor will proclaim them, with a lot of
noise, as the latest product of his “own sagacity” and start barking
against our further development. That is how, with his “own
sagacity,” he yelped against the Hegelian philosophy so long as it

4 6

MARX AND ENGELS

was progressive. Now he feeds on its stale crumbs as spewed out,
undigested, by Ruge.

Together with this letter you will receive the conclusion of the
Hungarian article. If your paper exists, try to use some of it, es-
pecially as Szemere, the ex-Premier of Hungary, has promised me
to write a regular article for you from Paris over his own signature.

If your paper has started publication, send more copies so that it
can be given a wider circulation.

Yours,

K. Mar*

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

London, March 25, 1852

Dear Weydemeyer:

Best wishes to the new citizen of the world! One can’t be born at
a better time than today. By the time the trip from London to Cal-
cutta will take seven days, the two of us will either be beheaded or
have heads that totter with age. And Australia and California and
the Pacific Ocean! The new citizens of the w r orld won’t be able to
comprehend how r small our world was. . . .

Very good that you’ve taken a job as a surveyor. Now you’ll be
able to operate with greater quiet and security.

Now I am going after Mazzini. Herr Kinkel, w r ho according to
his own admissions, draws his surpassing wisdom from “old wives’
tales” and pursues the unity of the “great men” wherever he goes,
finds upon his return that the struggle is at its height. The fact is
that Ledru [Ledru-Rollin] and Mazzini bought the Brussels news-
paper La Nation for 10,000 francs, out of the proceeds of the Italian
loan. And then Signor Mazzini let fly with his first articles, full of
the most odious and stupid attacks on France and on socialism, and
apropos of the fact that France has lost the initiative. His attacks
w'ere so violent that Ledru himself now has to take a stand against
them; they say he has already decided to do so. On the other hand,
the socialists Louis Blanc, Pierre Leroux, Cabet, Malarmet, and
others have gotten together and issued a venomous reply, written by
the toad Louis Blanc. Moreover, most of the French emigres are
unbelievably infuriated with Ledru, whom they rightfully hold
responsible for Mazzini’s blunders. Fire has broken out within the
very center of their camp.

If you get hold of the book by that vile priest Dulon, Der Tag ist
Angebrochen [“Day is Breaking”], give the cur (who would like to
play the role of Lamennais) a sound thrashing.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

Dronke has been arrested in Paris. He tarried there too long on
his way back from Switzerland, instead of passing through France
quickly.

I am greatly pleased with your selections. Pieper’s article would
have been all right for the newspaper, but it is written too hurriedly
and superficially for a pamphlet.

Couldn’t you get some news of Edgar 1 from Braunfels? That do-
nothing never writes a word, and his mother is greatly worried. A
madcap!

Cluss’s protest met with general approval here at the league meet-
ing, while your Revolution was well-liked both in Stechan’s society
and in ours.

Best regards to your family from all of us, Yours,

K. Marx

ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER

Manchester, April 16, 1852

Dear Weydemeyer:

Yesterday I received your letter of March 30 (?) , together with
the letter about the “revolutionary meeting.” I see that you have
begun to paste stamps on your letters; that is senseless, for the
“concern” here, i.e., Ermen and Engels, can pay the postal fees here.
What I received I sent on to Marx.

The day before yesterday I returned from London, where I spent
Easter. Marx’s youngest child was very ill and, as Marx now writes
me, died; this is the second death in London. You can understand,
of course, that his wife is taking it very hard. There also was sick-
ness in the Freiligrath family, but there the patients are on the mend.

You probably know that during his trip across France Dronke was
arrested in Paris, partly through his own fault: the youngster stayed
there for three weeks, in spite of his previous deportation. Now he
writes that he has been transferred from Mazas Prison back to the
prefecture of police and that on Good Friday he was to be sent to
Boulogne and from there to England. But we haven’t heard a word
from him since. The youngster has a remarkable talent for getting
into a scrape, but he most likely will show up within a day or two.
The whole Neue Rheinische Zeitung is assembling in England. To
be sure, Weerth is in Hamburg at the present time, but nevertheless
he is in touch with Bradford and, despite all his reluctance, he reg-
ularly returns there.

1 Edgar von Westphalen, Marx’s brother-in-law.

MARX AND ENGELS

4 8 .

In May our Cologne friends will most likely face a juiy, since the

arrive in New York from Cologne, treat him , as he deservm.
Thir lilow . member of the League since .848, administered the
hinds collected for the benefit of the prisoners, that is, he spent the

T wonW^nliSn” « 'Eia “sent'Wto of tile printed articles
bv Mara over here. We received only the first six articles and would
have liked to get the subsequent ones. If Dana should evade the
isJue on the pretext that this would involve a lot of work procure
these copies yourself and send them over here. Marx wanted to write
you about this long ago, but most likely he is hardly in a frame of
mind to think about it now. See what can be done in this respect.
We ought to have a full set of the articles here— it is important to
preserve them as documents.

1 Mv article on strategy is of no value any more and is quite un-
suitable for the symposium, especially since the major points are
deduced not in the article, but in my letters to you. File it quietly
away As soon as I have some free time and there is any chance of
having it printed, I shall send you an article on the development of
trade and on the position of the British industrial bourgeoisie. For
the next two or three weeks I shall be devoting all my time to Rus-
sian and Sanskrit, which I am now studying, and later, when I get
the material from Germany, I shall get down to military problems.
But there's no hurry, and that is easier work.

It's time for me to mail this letter. Best regards to your wife and

Cluss.

Yours,

F.E.

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

London, April 30, 1852

Dear Weydemeyer:

It gave me much pleasure to hear about the publication. 1 Lupus’
letter needn’t be taken so seriously. 2 You know that in our quite

1 Weydemeyer had finally managed to publish Marx’s The Eighteenth
Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte in an edition of one thousand copies.

s Wilhelm Wolff (Lupus) had written Weydemeyer a vehement letter on
April 16, the day that Marx’s infant daughter Franziska had been buried,
bitterly reproaching Weydemeyer for his alleged inactivity.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 49

distressing circumstances there always is a certain excessive irri-
tability, which has to be “discounted” to get a true balance.

Neither Engels nor I have as yet received your article in the
Turnzeitung attacking Kinkel. I am looking forward to it eagerly,
as your polemic against Heinzen was excellent. . . .

The status of big commerce and industry in England, and hence
on the Continent, is better than ever. As a result of special circum-
stances (California, Australia, the trade penetration of the British
into the Punjab, Sind, and other recently conquered parts of the
Indies) the crisis may be postponed until 1853. But when it does
break out, it will be frightful. And until then revolutionary up-
heavals are out of the question. The Cologne trial has again been
put off to the July session of court. By that time jury trials will
probably have been abolished altogether in Prussia. . . .

Yours,

K. M.

MRS. MARX TO CLUSS

[London, October 28, 1852]

Dear Mr. Cluss:

You will, no doubt, have been following the monster trial of
the communists in the Kolnische Zeitung. The session of October
23 gave the whole trial an imposing and interesting turn, so favor-
able for the defendants that we are all beginning to feel a little
better. You may imagine that the “Marx Party” is active day and
night and has to work with head, hands, and feet. . . . All the
assertions of the police are lies. They steal, forge, break open desks,
swear false oaths, perjure themselves, claiming they have the right
to do so against the communists who stand hors la societe [out-
side society]! It is truly hair-raising to see all this, and how the
police, in their most villainous form, are taking over all the func-
tions of the Ministry of Justice, pushing Saedt into the back-
ground, introducing unauthenticated slips of paper, mere rumors,
reports, and hearsay as actually judicially proven facts, as evidence.
All the proofs of forgery had to be submitted from here; thus,
my husband has to work all day at it, far into the night. Affidavits
by the landlords had to be submitted, and the handwriting of
Liebknecht and Rings, the men who are alleged to have written
the minutes, had to be officially certified to prove the forgery by
the police. Then all the papers, in six to eight copies, must be
sent to Germany by the most devious channels, via Frankfurt, Paris,
etc., as all letters addressed to my husband, as well as all letters sent

5 °

MARX AND ENGELS

from here to Cologne, are opened and confiscated. The whole thing
n™w a struggle between the police and my husband who is being
blamed for everything: the whole revolution, even the conduct of

lh FiSn^th,' Marx, Engels, and Wolff issued the enclosed state-
ment. We are sending it to the Tribune today. You can publish it,

too. . . •

Stieber has now denounced my husband as an Austrian spy. By
way of reply, my husband dug up a wonderful letter that Stieber
wrote to him during the period of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung,
which really compromises Stieber. ... In brief, things will come to
pass that would be unbelievable if one didn’t actually witness them.
All these police tales divert the public and thus the jurors from the
indictment itself, and the bourgeoisie’s hatred of these dreadful
incendiaries is paralyzed by their horror of the police villainy, so
that by now we may even count on our friends’ acquittal. The battle
against this official pow r er, buttressed w T ith gold and all the weapons,
is very interesting, of course, and all the more glorious if we should
end up victorious, since on one side there are money and powder and
everything else, whereas we often didn’t know where to get the paper
we needed to write letters, etc., etc. . . .

Enclosure

PUBLIC STATEMENT OF FREILIGRA T H, MARX , ENGELS ,
AND WOLFF 1

To the Editor of

Sir:

The undersigned call your attention to the attitude of the
Prussian press, even including the most reactionary papers, such as
the Neue Preussische Zeitung, during the pending trial of the
Communists at Cologne and to the honorable discretion they ob-
served at a moment when scarcely a third part of the witnesses
have been examined, where none of the produced documents has
been verified, and not a word has fallen yet from the defense. While
those papers, at the worst, represent the Cologne prisoners and the
undersigned, their London friends, as dangerous conspirators, who
alone are responsible for the whole European history of the last
four years and for all the revolutionary commotions of 1848 and
1849, there are two public organs, the Times and the Daily News,

1 This statement was written in English.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

5 1

which have not hesitated to represent the Cologne prisoners and the
undersigned as a gang of swindlers, “sturdy beggars," etc.

The undersigned address to the English public the same demand
which the defenders of the accused have addressed to the public in
Germany — to suspend their judgment and to wait for the end of
the trial. Were they to give further explanations at the present time,
the Prussian government might obtain the means of baffling a
revelation of police- tricks, perjury, forgery of documents, falsifica-
tions of dates, thefts, etc., unprecedented even in the records of
Prussian political justice. When those revelations shall have been
made in the course of the present proceedings, public opinion in
England will know how to qualify the anonymous scribes of the
Times and the Daily News, who make themselves the advocates and
mouthpieces of the most infamous and subaltern government spies.

Fr. Engels, F. Freiligrath, K. Marx, W. Wolff

MARX TO CLUSS 1

London, December 7, 1852
Enclosed: (1) my manuscript of Enthiillungen iiber den Kom-
munistenprozess zu Koln [Revelations of the Communist Trial in
Cologne]. This manuscript was sent to Switzerland yesterday; it is
being printed there and will be distributed in Germany as a New
Year’s gift for Messrs. Prussians. Print it in America, if you think you
can recover at least its production costs in the American market. If
you can make more, so much the better. In that event, an advance
announcement should be made in the press to arouse the public’s
curiosity. If the brochure can appear in America, it must be printed
anonymously, as is being done in Switzerland. You will appreciate
the humor of the brochure better when you realize that its author
is as good as interned because he lacks pants and shoes and that,
moreover, his family risked and still risks being plunged into really
distressing poverty . The trial dragged me even deeper into penury,
for I had to spend five weeks working for the party against the gov-
ernment’s machinations, instead of earning some money. In addition,
it has totally estranged the German booksellers with whom I had
hoped to sign a contract for my “Political Economy." Lastly, the
arrest of Bermbach deprived me of the opportunity of realizing the
proceeds of the copies of the Eighteenth Brumaire sent by you, for
300 copies were ordered through him as long ago as May. In short —
I’m on the rocks. . . .

l Text as transcribed by F. A. Sorge.

^ MARX AND ENGELS

5 (2) i am sending you an appeal for donations on behalf of the
Cologne prisoners and their families. Place it m various newspapers.
It would be good if committees were formed in America, perhaps. . . .

A n nre extensive statement on the shameful behavior of the
government in the Cologne trial (signed by me, Lupus, Freihgrath,
and Engels) appeared in various London newspapers. The Prussian
Legation^ is particularly offended by the fact that this unvarnished
denunciation of the Prussian government was printed in the most
refined and respectable London weeklies -the Spectator and the

As for Proudhon, you are both right. Massol s illusions arise fi om
the fact that Proudhon, with his customary professional charlatanry,
has borrowed some ideas from me, as his own latest discoveries.
For example, that there is no absolute science, that everything must
be explained as founded on material conditions, etc., etc. In his book
on Louis Bonaparte, he frankly admits what I first had to deduce
from his Philosophic de la Misere [Philosophy of Poverty ], namely,
that his ideal is the petty bourgeoisie. France, he says, consists of
three classes: (1) the bourgeoisie; (2) the middle class (the petty
bourgeoisie); and (3) the proletariat. The purpose of history, and
of the revolution in particular, is to dissolve the extremes - the first
and third classes - into the second class, the golden mean; this can
be done by means of the Proudhonist credit operations, the end
result of which must be abolition of interest in all its various
forms. . . .

In the proceedings before the Cologne court, Becker has com-
promised himself and the party. It had been arranged with him be-
forehand that he was to appear as a non-member of the League and
not to lose his following among the democratic petty bourgeoisie. But
he suddenly became involved in the deception himself (he is very
weak as far as theoretical education is concerned, but strong enough
where petty ambition is involved) and decided to play the leader
of the democrats at the expense of the communists. Not only does
he want to be acquitted, but to exploit the laurels of the trial for
his own personal ends. He is not only brazen; he is turning into a
blackguard.

In conclusion, a few words about France: Bonaparte, who has
always lived by borrowing, assumes that the golden age will be
most easily established in France if he establishes credit institutions
everywhere and makes them as accessible as possible to all classes
of society. His operations have two good sides to them: they are
paving the way for a terrible financial crisis; and they demonstrate
what the Proudhonist tricks lead to once they are roused from their

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 53

theoretical sleep and put into practice, viz., to fraudulent stock-
jobbing without precedent since John Law.

The Orleanists — I know one of their agents very well — are dis-
playing unusual activity. Thiers is here now. They have many allies
in the army and in Bonaparte's immediate entourage. They would
like to kill him in his bed (in January). We shall see. In any
event, I shall be informed of this two weeks before their attempt
and shall warn the revolutionary-proletarian party in Paris through
the secret society of “frhes et amis ” [“brothers and friends"] to
which I belong. Even if the Orleanists pull the chestnuts out of the
fire, they won’t be able to eat them in any event. . . .

K. M.

MARX TO CLUSS 1

[London, April 1853]

. . . Today I received the first five issues [of Die Reform] from New
York— I don’t know whether from Weydemeyer or Kellner. I was
already acquainted with most of them through you. This is at least
an honest paper, something rare in America, and a workingman’s
paper. I can’t say that the editor-in-chief’s affected disdain of ques-
tions personelles [personal questions], which are also party questions,
his make-believe naive simplicity, or his Biblical solemnity are much
to my taste. But one has to take the paper as it is. What I liked best
of all was Weydemeyer’s introduction to the “Economic Sketches.’’
That is good. I have appealed to the people here. . . . On the whole,
it’s hard to get collaborators. I myself am overworked. The others
are still a little frightened by previous experiences. Our party is un-
fortunately very pauvre [poor]. . . .

ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER

Manchester, April 12, 1853

Dear Weydemeyer:

... I have perfected my knowledge of Slavic languages and mili-
tary science this winter, and by the end of the year I shall understand
Russian and South Slavic fairly well. I purchased the library of a
retired Prussian artillery officer in Cologne cheaply, and for a time
I again felt like a bombardier, among the Pliimicke, the brigade

x This letter is translated from the fragment published by Franz Meliring in
Die Neue Zeit, Vol. 25 (1907), Ft. 2.

MARX AND ENGELS

school handbook, and the other old volumes you recollect. There is
no doubt that Prussian military literature is the very worst of the lot;
the only tolerable stuff is what was written in the immediate, fresh
ecoHecdon of the campaigns of But after 1822 here sets

in an abominable pretentious, military pedantry that isn t worth a
damn. A few tolerable things have recently been published m Prussia
aeain but not many. Since I am not familiar with the spec.alued
literature, the French works are completely inaccessible to me, un-

f ° Ihavelust about boned my way through the old campaigns (those
since 1702); the Napoleonic campaigns are so easy that it is hard to
go astray in them. Au bout du compte [all things considered],
Jomini is the best historian of these campaigns; the natural genius
Clausewitz doesn’t quite appeal to me, despite the many fine pieces
he has written.

For the immediate future, i.e., for us, the most important is the
Russian campaign of 1812— it is the only one where there are major
strategic problems still unsolved. In Germany and Italy there are
no other lines of operations feasible other than those established by
Napoleon; in Russia, on the other hand, everything is still obscure
and unclear. When we seek an answer to the problem of what a
revolutionary army should do in the event of a successful offensive
against Russia, the question whether Napoleon’s plan of operations
in 1812 envisaged from the very start a direct advance on Moscow or
an advance only to the Dnieper and the Dvina in the first campaign
again rises to face us. This question can now be solved, it seems to
me, solely by sea: in the Skaggerak and the Dardanelles, and at
St. Petersburg, Riga, and Odessa — that is, of course, if we leave
chance out of our reckoning and start only with an approximate
balance of forces as a basis. Another condition, of course, is that
we leave aside any internal movement in Russia, whereas a noble-
bourgeois revolution in St. Petersburg, with an ensuing civil war
inside the country, is quite within the realm of possibility. Mr.
Hertzen made the problem much easier for himself (Du Dtveloppe-
ment des idees revolutionnaires en Russie [The Development of
Revolutionary Ideas in Russia]), by propounding the Hegelian
construction of a democratic-social-communist-Proudhonist Russian
republic headed by the triumvirate of Bakunin-Hertzen-Golovin,
so that it can’t miss. By the way, it is very uncertain whether Bakunin
is still alive. In any event, it is extremely difficult to conquer vast,
widespread, sparsely populated Russia. As for the former Polish
provinces this side of the Dvina and the Dnieper, I haven’t wanted
to hear about them ever since I learned that all the peasants there

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

are Ukrainians while only the nobles and some of the bourgeois arc
Poles, and that for the peasant there the restoration of Poland
would mean merely the restoration of the old rule of the nobility
in full force, as was the case in Ukrainian Galicia in 1846. In all
these areas, not counting the Kingdom of Poland proper, there are
hardly 500,000 Poles I

However, it’s good that the revolution this time encounters a
sturdy antagonist in the shape of Russia, and not such feeble scare-
crows as in 1848.

In the meanwhile all sorts of symptoms are making their appear-
ance. The cotton prosperity over here is actually attaining such
heights as to make one dizzy, while individual branches of the cotton
industry (coarse material, domestics) are in a state of complete
slump. The speculators are counting on saving themselves from the
dizzy swindle by swindling wholesale (building railways with British
money) only in America and France, while swindling over here at
retail, on a small scale, thus gradually infecting all commodities with
the swindle. The quite abnormal winter and spring weather over
here have most likely damaged the grain crop, and if, as is usually
the case, this is followed by an abnormal summer, the crop will be a
failure. The present prosperity, in my opinion, cannot last beyond
autumn. In the meantime, the third British cabinet in the course of
a single year is now making a fool of itself — and this is the last
possible cabinet without the direct intervention of the radical
bourgeoisie. The Whigs, the Tories, the coalitionists are all suffering
defeat in turn, not because of a tax deficit, but because of surplus.
This characterizes the whole policy as well as the extreme impotence
of the old parties. If the present ministers fall, Britain cannot be
governed without a considerable extension of the electorate; in all
likelihood this will coincide with the onset of the crisis. The pro-
longed boredom of prosperity makes it almost impossible for the
unlucky Bonaparte to preserve his dignity — the world is bored,
and Bonaparte bores the world. Unfortunately, he cannot get mar-
ried again every month. That swindler, drunkard, and cheat will
break his neck, because he is compelled to put Engels' Fiirstenspiegel
[Princely Mirror] into practice, if only for appearance’s sake. The
blackguard, playing the role of “Father of his country,’’ is at his wits’
end. He can’t even start a war; at his slightest move he comes up
against serried ranks, a solid wall of bayonets. Besides, peace gives
the peasants the highly desired time to reflect on how the man who
promised to crush Paris for the sake of the peasants is now beauti-
fying Paris at the expense of the peasants, while mortgages and
assessments are growing rather than diminishing, in spite of every-

gg MARX AND ENGELS

thing. In a word, this time events are developing methodically, and

that is very promising. , . ,

In Prussia the government, with its income tax, has nicely gotten
itself into trouble with the bourgeoisie. The tax assessments are
being raised by the bureaucrats with the greatest arrogance, and you
can imagine the delight with which these noble inkslingers are now
snooping around in the trade secrets and ledgers of all businessmen.
Even my father, the inveterate Prussian, is boiling with rage. These
people must now taste the blessings of the a bon mar chi [bargain]
constitutional-paternal-Prussian government down to the very dregs.
The Prussian government debt, which was about 67 million talers
before 1848, must have quadrupled since then, and they now
want to borrow again! It should be said that the stout king had
agreed to sweat a little again, as in the days of March [1848], if he
were only assured these credits until his blissful death. But Louis
Napoleon again helped him to re-establish the Zollverein, Austria
yielded a bit out of fear of war, “and now, Lord, allow your servant
to go to his grave in peace !”

The Austrians are doing their best to get Italy into motion
again; up to the Milan putsch the country was entirely engrossed
in trade and prosperity, to the extent that the latter was com-
patible with taxes. If all this continues for a couple of months
more, Europe is splendidly prepared and needs only the impetus
of the crisis. In addition, the unprecedentedly long and universal
prosperity — ever since the beginning of 1849 — has restored the
strength of the exhausted parties (in so far as they are not com-
pletely worn out, like the monarchists in France) much more
quickly than was the case after 1830, for example, when business
conditions were, on the whole, mixed and colorless for a long time.
In 1848, moreover, only the Paris proletariat and, later, Hungary
and Italy, were exhausted by serious struggles; the insurrections in
France after June 1848 were almost not worth mentioning, ulti-
mately ruining only the old monarchist parties. Then there is the
comical result of the movement in all countries, nothing being seri-
ous or important but the colossal historical irony and the concentra-
tion of Russian war resources. In view of all this, it seems quite
impossible to me, even from the most dispassionate point of view,
for the present situation to outlast the spring of 1854.

It is very good that this time our party comes forward under alto-
gether different auspices. All the socialist stupidities, that had to be
championed in 1848 as against the pure democrats and South Ger-
man republicans, L. Blanc's nonsense, etc., even things that we were
compelled to put forward in order to obtain support for our views

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

in the confused German situation— all that is now championed by
our opponents— Ruge, Heinzen, Kinkel, et al. The preliminaries
of the proletarian revolution, the measures that prepare the battle-
ground and clear the way for us, such as a single and indivisible re-
public, etc., things that we had to champion against the people whose
natural, normal job it should have been to achieve or, at least, to
demand them — all that is now convenu [taken for granted]. The
gentlemen have learned. This time we start right off with the Mani-
festo [Manifesto of the Communist Party] thanks to the Cologne
trial in particular, in which German communism passed its bac-
calaureate examination (especially in the person of Rdser).

All this, of course, concerns only the theory; in practice we shall
always be reduced to pressing for resolute measures and absolute
ruthlessness above all. And that’s the trouble. I have a presentiment
that, thanks to the perplexity and flabbiness of all the others, our
party will be forced into the government one fine morning to carry
out ultimately the measures that are of no direct interest to us, but
are in the general interests of the revolution and the specific interests
of the pe tty-bourgeoisie; on which occasion, driven by the proletari-
an populace, bound by our own printed declarations and plans —
more or less falsely interpreted, more or less passionately put forward
in the partisan struggle — we shall be constrained to undertake com-
munist experiments and extravagant measures, the untimeliness of
which we know better than anyone else. In so doing we lose our
heads— only physiquement parlant [physically speaking], let us hope
—a reaction sets in, and until the world is able to form a historical
judgment of such events, we are considered not only beasts, which
wouldn’t matter, but also bete [stupid], which is much worse.

I don’t see how it can turn out otherwise. In a backward country
like Germany, which possesses an advanced party and is involved in
an advanced revolution with an advanced country like France, the
advanced party must take over at the first serious conflict and as
soon as actual danger is present, and that is, in any event, ahead of
its normal time. All that is unimportant, however, and the best thing
we can do is for our party to have established its historical rehabilita-
tion in its literature ahead of time, should events take such a turn.

Moreover, we shall appear on the historical stage much more
respectably than last time. First, we are rid of all the old good-for-
nothings in personalibus [in point of personnel]— the Schappers,
Willichs, and their ilk; second, we have grown somewhat stronger;
third, we can count on a rising young generation in Germany (if
nothing else, the Cologne trial alone suffices to assure us that); and
finally, we have all profited considerably from our exile. To be sure,

5 »

MARX AND ENGELS

we also have people among us who live by the principle: “What do
we have to study for, that’s what pere [Father] Marx is for, whose
job it is to know everything.” But, on the whole, the Marx party
studies pretty hard, and when one looks at the other jackasses among
the emigres, who have picked up new phrases here and there and
thus made themselves more confused than ever, it is obvious that the
superiority of our party has increased absolutely and relatively. But
that is needed, too, for la besogne sera rude [the job will be hard].

Before the coming revolution I wish I had time to study at
least the Italian and Hungarian campaigns of 1848-49. On the whole,
this story is clear enough to me, despite unsatisfactory maps, etc., but
lots of work and money are required to establish the details with the
accuracy required for a description. In both instances the Italians
beha\ed like jackasses. In general, Willisen’s description and critique
are correct in most cases, but sometimes they are stupid. The com-
plete superiority of Austrian strategy, which Willisen stresses as early
as 1848, is revealed only in the Novara campaign, which is actually
the most brilliant campaign fought in Europe since Napoleon.
{Outside Europe, old General Charles Napier accomplished feats in
India in 1842 that really remind one of Alexander the Great. By and
ar f e ’. 1 consider , him the best of the generals alive today.) The
traditional faith in positions established in the campaigns of the
1790 s that was prevalent in Italy, as in Baden, in 1849 « comical.
Herr Sigel would never fight from any other position than that
rendered classical by Moreau, while Charles Albert believed in the
miraculous power of the Rivoli plateau no less firmly than in the
virginity of Mary. In Italy this tradition was so unshakable that
each major maneuver of the Austrians began with a feigned attack

and each tlme the Piedmontese fell into the trap. The
gist of the matter, of course, was that the corresponding positions

H » f •<* Austrians ,rere ‘'quite S[i

erenL In Hungary, Monsieur Gorgei stands out above all the

and thCy 311 emied a " d ha * d him for

a slieh?amount V of v T* talcnt ’ had not Passed

the withdrawal of the troops fr L KoSL “S befo^he RuT

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

has not been cleared up at all as yet. To judge from Gorgei’s memoirs
and other documents, he was the soul of Gorgei’s strategic plans.
B[ayer], as Pleyel told me, was the principal author of the official
Austrian book on this campaign. (Bayer was a prisoner in Pest, but
escaped.) They say that this book is very good, but I haven’t been
able to get it yet. Gorgei speaks of Klapka with great respect, but
everybody admits his extreme weakness of character. Perczel is gen-
erally recognized to be a fool, a "democratic” Hungarian general.
Old man Bern considered himself to be merely a good guerrilla
fighter and a good commander of a single detachment with specific
assignments. As far as I can judge, he fulfilled only this function,
but did so excellently. He committed two blunders: once when,
after the Banat, he undertook his fruitless expedition into the
unknown, and, later, when he repeated the skillful maneuver toward
Hermanstadt, with which he had once been successful, during the
great Russian invasion and was defeated. Papa Dembinski was
simply a dreamer and a braggart, a guerrilla fighter who imagined
that he was fit to be a leader in a major war and committed all sorts
of extravaganzas. Amusing stories are told about him in Smit’s book
on the Polish campaign of 1831. . . .

Yours,

F. Engels

MARX TO CLUSS 1

[London, June 1853]

. . . You have no other paper in New York. Wouldn t it therefore
be impolitic to abandon Kellner and the paper? In the final analy-
sis, you will be doing the fellow a service. Pretend to be naive, and
continue writing. That’s the worst thing you could do to him. Don’t
free him from influences that, from all appearances, have become
damned intolerable to him. Act like the citizens of Prussia. The
government and its Manteuffel are doing their very best to get rid
of the citizens’ friendship. The latter act as if they believed in the
constitutionality of their government, et le gouvernement est consti-
tutionel malgrt lui-meme [and the government is constitutional in
spite of itself]. That is wordly wisdom. . . .

'This letter is translated from the fragment published by Franz Mehring in
Die Neue Zeit, Vol. *5 (1907) , Pt. s. p. 165.

MARX AND ENGELS

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

London, February 1, 1859

Dear Weiwi:

Your letter, dated February 28, 1858, got here (or at any rate
reached me) at the end of May, and here I am replying in Feb-
ruary 1859. The reason is very simple. I had liver trouble all spring
and summer and it was only with difficulty that I managed to find
time for the work I had to do. It was out of the question for me to
write unless it was absolutely necessary. And later on I was swamped
with work.

First of all, the most cordial regards to you and yours from all the
members of my family, as well as from Engels, Lupus, and Freilig-
rath. And my especial compliments to your wife. Engels is, as always,
in Manchester; Lupus lives there too, giving lessons, and is fairly well
off. Freiligrath, in London, is the manager of a branch of the Swiss
Credit Mobilicr: Dronke is a commission agent in Glasgow; Imandt
(I don't know whether you know him) is a professor in Dundee; our
good friend Weerth died in Haiti, unfortunately — an irreplaceable
loss.

Things have been going badly rather than well with me for the
past two years. On the one hand, the good old Tribune cut my in-
come in half because of the crisis, though it never gave me an extra
penny in times of prosperity; on the other hand, the time I needed
for my study of political economy (more of that below) forced me
to turn down (though with a heavy heart) very remunerative offers
made to me in London and Vienna. But I must pursue my goal
through thick and thin, and I must not allow bourgeois society to
turn me into a money-making machine.

Last May Herr Cluss was here. It happened that I was with Engels
in Manchester at the time. He visited my wife and accepted the
invitation to return next day, but he didn't show up [. . . .]i from
London and wasn't seen again. Instead of a visit, he sent my wife a
letter, written because of embarrassment" in a rather "uncivil"
manner. Nor did he show up in Manchester. We later found out
that he had formed an alliance with Herr Willich. This explains the
mysterious suspension of his correspondence. If we were conceited,
we would have felt pretty well chastised at learning that a fool like
Wilhch had won a victory over us even in the eyes of a man as bright
as Cluss, but this whole episode had so much that was comical about
it that it stifled any chagrin.

I have broken with Ernest Jones. Despite my repeated warnings

1 Manuscript torn at this point.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

and despite the fact that I accurately predicted what would happen,
namely, that he would ruin himself and disorganize the Chartist
party, he nevertheless took the course of trying to reach an agree-
ment with the radical bourgeoisie. Now he is a ruined man, and
the harm he has caused the British proletariat is enormous. The
mistake will be corrected, of course, but an extremely favorable
moment for action has been allowed to slip by. Imagine an army
whose general crosses over to the camp of the enemy on the eve of a
battle. ...

The revolutionary wind blowing over the Continent of Lurope
has, of course, awakened all the great men from their winter sleep.

I am sending off another letter together with this one — my first
letter to Komp. I have given up my organizational contacts. I found
them compromising for my German friends. Over here, after the
dirty tricks played on me by the boors who let themselves be used
as the tools of Kinkel and other humbugs against me, I retired com-
pletely to my study ever since the Cologne trial. My time was too
valuable for me to waste in futile exertions and petty squabbles.

And now to essentials!

My Critique of Political Economy will be published in parts
(the first part in eight or ten days from now) by Franz Duncker
(Besser’s publishing house) in Berlin. It is only thanks to Lassalle s
extraordinary zeal and powers of persuasion that Duncker was gotten
to take this step. For all that, he left a back door open for himself.
The definitive contract depends on the sale of the initial parts.

I divide all political economy into six books:

Capital; Landed Property; Wage Labor; State; Foreign Trade;
World Market.

Book I on capital consists of four sections.

Section I — Capital in general — consists of three chapters: ( 1 ) The
Commodity; (2) Money or Simple Circulation; (3) Capital 1 (1) and
(2), about ten printer's sheets, represent the contents of the first
parts to be published. You understand the political reasons that
moved me to hold back the third chapter, on Capital, until I
have got a firm footing again.

The contents of the parts now being published are as follows:
Chapter /: The Commodity .

A. Historical notes on the analysis of commodities . [William
Petty (an Englishman of the time of Charles II); Boisguillebert

x This plan was altered somewhat by Marx by the time Vol. I of Capital was
published, in 1867. Cf. Karl Marx, Capital Vol. I, International Publishers,
New York, 1939.

MARX AND ENGELS

(period of Louis XIV); B. Franklin (his first published work, 1719);
the physiocrats, Sir James Steuart, Adam Smith, Ricardo, and
Sismondi.]

Chapter II: Money or Simple Circulation.

1. The measure of values.

B. Theories of the unit of measurement of money. [End of the
seventeenth century. Locke and Lowndes; Bishop Berkeley (1750);
Sir James Steuart; Lord Castlereagh; Thomas Attwood; John Gray;
the Proudhonists.]

2. The medium of circulation.

a. The metamorphosis of commodities.

b. The circulation of money.

c. The coin. The token of value.

3. Money.

a. Hoarding.

b. Means of payment.
c World money.

4. The precious metals.

C. Theories of the medium of circulation and of money. [Mone-
tary system; The Spectator, Montesquieu, David Hume; Sir James
Steuart, A. Smith, J. B. Say, the Bullion Committee, Ricardo; James
Mill; Lord Overstone and his school; Thomas Tooke, James Wilson,
John Fullartone.]

In these two chapters, the Proudhonist socialism now fashionable
in France, which proposes to let private production continue to
exist, but proposes to organize the exchange of private products,
which wants commodities but not money, is likewise destroyed root
and branch. Communism must first of all rid itself of this “false
brother." But aside from any polemical aim, you know that the
analysis of the simple money-forms is the most difficult, because
it is the most abstract, part of political economy. I hope to gain a
scientific victory for our party. But the party itself must now show
w et ler its membership is big enough to buy enough copies to ease
t e ooksellers scruples of conscience." The continuation of the
project epends upon the sale of the first few parts. Once I have
a definitive contract, everything will be all right
Best regards. 5

Yours,

K. Marx

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER

Manchester, November 24, 1864

Dear Weydemeyer:

. . . These are boring times here in Europe. The crushing of the
Polish insurrection was the last significant event; for his assistance
in this affair Bismarck received permission from the Tsar to seize
Schleswig-Holstein from the Danes. It will be a long time before
Poland can rise again— even with outside help— and Poland is
absolutely indispensable to us. The cowardice of the German liberal
philistines is to blame for the whole thing. If these dogs had dis-
played more understanding and courage in the Prussian Diet,
everything might have turned out all right. Austria was ready to
come to Poland's defense at any time. The only factors that
prevented it were Prussia's position and the treason of Bonaparte,
who, in these circumstances, would, of course have kept his promises
to the Poles only if he could have played it safely, i.e., if he had been
backed up by Prussia and Austria.

Your war over there is one of the most imposing experiences one
can ever live through. Despite the numerous blunders committed
by the Northern armies (and the South has committed its share),
the conquering wave is slowly but surely rolling on, and the time
must come in 1865 when the organized resistance of the South will
suddenly fold up like a pocket knife, and the war will degenerate
into banditry, as was the case in the Carlist War in Spain and,
more recently, in Naples. A people's war of this sort, on both sides,
is unprecedented ever since the establishment of powerful states; its
outcome will doubtless determine the future of America for hun-
dreds of years to come. As soon as slavery — that greatest of obstacles
to the political and social development of the United States — has
been smashed, the country will experience a boom that will very
soon assure it an altogether different place in the history of the
world, and the army and navy created during the war will then
soon find employment.

Moreover, it is easy to see why the North found it hard to create
an army and generals. From the start the Southern oligarchy placed
the country's small armed forces under its own control— it supplied
the officers and also robbed the arsenals. The North was left
without any military cadres, except for the militia, while the South
had been preparing over the course of several years. From the outset
the South had available a population accustomed to the saddle
for use as light cavalry, while the North lagged behind in this
respect. The North adopted the method, introduced by the South,
of alloting posts to adherents of a certain party; the South, engulfed

MARX AND ENGELS

in a revolution and under the rule of a military dictatorship, was
able to disregard this. Hence all the blunders. I do not deny
that Lee is better than all the generals of the North and that his
latest campaigns around the fortified Richmond encampment are
masterpieces, from which the glorious Prince Friedrich Karl of
Prussia could learn a great deal. But the resolute attacks of Grant
and Sherman finally rendered all this strategy useless.

It is obvious that Grant is sacrificing an enormous number of
men-but could he have acted otherwise? I haven’t the slightest idea
of the state of discipline of your army, its steadfastness under
fire, its capacity and readiness to endure hardships, and, in
particular, its morale, i.e., what can be demanded of it without
risking its demoralization. One must know' all that before venturing
a judgment, especially if one is on the other side of the ocean, with-
out adequate information, and without any decent maps. But it
seems to me certain that the army now commanded by Sherman is
the best of your armies, as superior to Hood’s army as Lee’s army
is to Grant’s.

Your tables of organization and your elementary tactics are
borrowed entirely from the French, as I have heard— thus the basic
formation is the column, with spaces between the platoons. What is
your field artillery like now? If you could give me some information
on this point, I should be very grateful. What happened to the
great man Anneke? I lost sight of him after he almost lost the
battle of Pittsburg Landing because he hadn’t been issued every-
thing he was supposed to have according to the Prussian table of
organization. Of the Germans participating in all the campaigns,
Willich has apparendy made the best showing; Sigel, on the other
hand, demonstrated his mediocrity. And Schurz, the valiant Schurz,
w k° p under a hail of bullets, what enemies is he anni-

hilating now?

By the way, the Prussian guns that leveled Diippel and Sonder-
burg 1 at a range of 6500 paces were old, long, bronze 24-pound-
ers rifled and adapted for breech loading, the shell weighing 54
pounds, and the charge — 4 pounds! I have seen them myself.

Best regards to your wife.

Yours,

F. Engels

'Two Danish fortresses captured in the Prusso-Danish War of 1864.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 65

MARX TO WEYDEMEYER

London, November 29, 1864

Dear Weywey:

I am sending you simultaneously by mail four copies of a printed
address drafted by me. 1 The newly established International Work-

ingmen’s Committee, in whose name it is issued, is not without
importance. Its English members consist mostly of the chiefs of the
local trade unions, that is, the actual labor kings of London, the
same fellows who prepared the gigantic reception for Garibaldi and
prevented Palmerston from declaring war upon the United States,
as he was on the point of doing, through the monster meeting in
St. James’s Hall (under Bright’s chairmanship) . The members
from the French are insignificant, but they are the direct organs of
the leading “workmen” in Paris.

There is likewise a connection with the Italian societies, which
recently held their congress in Naples. Although for years I
systematically declined all participation in all “organizations,” I

accepted this time, because it involved a matter where it is possible
to do some important work. . . .

Yours,

K. Marx

ADDRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKINGMEN’S
ASSOCIATION TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN 2

To Abraham Lincoln,

President of the United States of America.

Sir: — We congratulate the American people upon your re-election
by a large majority. If resistance to the Slave Power was the reserved
watchword of your first election, the triumphant war-cry of your
re-election is, Death to Slavery.

From the Commencement of the titanic American strife the work-
ingmen of Europe felt instinctively that the star-spangled banner
carried the destiny of their class. The contest for the territories which

1 Marx’s Inaugural Address of the First International. See Founding of the First
International, International Publishers, New York, 1937.

2 This address was signed by all the members of the General Council of the
International Workingmen’s Association (the First International) and was for-
warded to President Lincoln through Charles Francis Adams, the Minister of the
United States in London. It was published in The Bee-Hive, London, January 7 ,
1865.

MARX AND ENGELS

opened the dire epopee, was it not to decide whether the virgin soil
of immense tracts should be wedded to the labor of the emigrant
or prostituted by the tramp of the slave driver?

When an oligarchy of 300,000 slaveholders dared to inscribe, for
the first time in the annals of the world, "slavery” on the banner of
armed revolt; when on the very spots where hardly a century ago the
idea of one great democratic republic had first sprung up, whence
the first declaration of the Rights of Man was issued, and the first
impulse given to the European revolution of the eighteenth centurv;
when on those very spots counter-revolution, with systematic thor-
oughness, gloried in rescinding “the ideas entertained at the time of
the formation of the old Constitution," and maintained "slavery to
be a beneficent institution, indeed the only solution of the great
problem of the relation of labor to capital,” and cynically proclaimed
property in man “the cornerstone of the new edifice”; then the
working classes of Europe understood at once, even before the
fanatic partisanship of the upper classes for the Confederate gentry
had given its dismal warning, that the slaveholders’ rebellion was
to sound the tocsin for a general holy crusade of property against
labor, and that for the men of labor, with their hopes for the future,
even their past conquests were at stake in that tremendous conflict
on the other side of the Atlantic. Everywhere they bore therefore
patiently the hardships imposed upon them by the cotton crisis,
opposed enthusiastically the pro-slavery intervention, importunities
of their “betters,” and from most parts of Europe contributed their
quota of blood to the good cause.

While the workingmen, the true political power of the North,
allowed slavery to defile their own republic; while before the Negro,
mastered and sold without his concurrence, they boasted it the
highest prerogative of the white-skinned laborer to sell himself and
choose his own master; they were unable to attain the true freedom
ol labor or to support their European brethren in their struggle for
emancipanon, but this barrier to progress has been swept off by
the red sea of civil war. 1 7

f T h ' " oriingmen of Europe feel sure that as the American War

rLl dCPe f K de T e in,tiated 3 new era of ^cendancy for the middle
? S ° T f e American anti-slavery War will do for the working

to i , fYi 00 u der ,f . an earnest of the epoch to come, that it fell
class to°l/rU ^ am ^ inco ' n ’ *^ e s i n gle-minded son of the working

of an en h dhl H C0Untry through the matchless struggle for the rescue
Of an enchained race and the reconstruction of a sodal world.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

6 ?

ENGELS TO WEYDEMEYER

Manchester, March 10, 1865

Dear Weydemeyer:

At last I have gotten down to answering your letter of January
20. I sent it to Marx, who kept it for a very long time— partly
because he was ill— and returned it to me only last week. I was
unable to write you by the previous steamer, as I was too busy with
the firm’s affairs on that day.

Many thanks for the detailed answer to my questions. I had lost
the thread of the “combined” operations because of the careless
war reporting in the local press. The Red River expedition re-
mained entirely incomprehensible to me, and even Sherman’s
movement eastward from Vicksburg was very obscure, as no one
over here had written about the southern corps advancing from
New Orleans. These combined operations, with a junction point not
only in the enemy’s territory, but even behind his lines, indicate
how primitive are the strategic notions of a people wholly inexperi-
enced in military affairs. Nevertheless, if the honorable Wrangel
and Prince Friedrich Karl had not commanded forces twice as large
as the enemy’s in the war with Denmark, they would have done
exactly the same. The battle of Missund and the two incom-
prehensible “demonstrations” (I use that word as some sort of name
for a thing not having a name) against Duppel before the offensive
were even more childish.

As for Grant’s conduct before Richmond, I endeavor to explain
it otherwise. I fully share your opinion that it would have been
strategically correct to attack Richmond from the west. But it seems
to me— in so far as one can judge, at such a distance and without
accurate information— that Grant chose the eastern approach for
two reasons:

1. Because it was easier for him to secure supplies there. In the
west the only railroads he could use were the ones to Fredericksburg
and Tennessee (both of these roads passed through regions ex-
hausted by the war), while in the east he had the Fredericksburg
railroad, as well as the York and the James Rivers. Bearing in
mind the difficulty of supplying large armies, which played so
important a part throughout the war, I cannot condemn Grant
unqualifiedly until I am clear on this point. You upbraid him
for having turned his back to the sea, but when you command the
sea and possess secured embarkation points for troops (Monroe
and Norfolk), that is an advantage. Compare Wellington’s cam-
paigns in Spain and the Crimean campaign, during which the
Allies, after their victory at the Alma, actually fled, in order to

MARX AND ENGELS

have the sea protect their rear south of Sebastopol. It is quite
obvious that possession of the Shenandoah Valley was the best
guarantee of the security of Washington.

2. But the question arises: did Grant (or, for that matter, Lincoln)
want to have Washington secured against all danger? On the
contrary, it seems to me that with the looseness of the Federal
Constitution and the rather indifferent attitude toward the war of
some regions in the North, Lincoln really never seriously wanted
to drive the Confederates out of Richmond, but rather wanted
to keep them in positions from which they threatened Washing-
ton, Pennsylvania, and even New York to some extent. I believe
that otherwise he never would have gotten the recruits or the
money to finish the war. I readily believe that Grant has very
much wanted to capture Richmond for the past 3-4 months, but he
hasn’t been strong enough. I estimate his forces are 70-90,000 men,
while Lee has 50-70,000. If this ratio is approximately correct, then
he achieved the maximum possible in his offensive, which was
known to be strategically incorrect beforehand, by wresting from
Lee any possibility of waging an offensive defense and by surround-
ing Richmond on at least three sides. I do not think that Lee, after
having distinguished himself among all the other Northern and
Southern generals by his brilliant counter-offensives during the
past two years, would now give up this method of waging war unless
he were compelled to do so. On the other hand, the North has
gained an extraordinary advantage in having been able to pin the
South’s best army down to Richmond, to one corner of the South’s
terrain because of a childish point of honor, until all the adjoining
territory had been cut off and disorganized militarily for the South-
erners as a result of the conquest of the Mississippi Valley and of
Sherman's campaign, and until it was possible for all the Union’s
available troops to advance on Richmond to finish the business
with one decisive blow. This, apparently, is now taking place.

The latest news received from New York is dated February 25.
They report the capture of Charleston and Wilmington and Sher-
man’s march from Columbia to Winnsboro. Obviously, Sherman is
the only man in the North who is able to hammer victories out
of his soldiers feet. The men under his command must be splen-
did fellows. I await the development of events with impatience.
If Lee evaluates his desperate situation correctly, there is nothing
left for him but to break camp and move south. But whither? The
only road open to him is the road to Lynchburg and Tennessee;
ut it is too risky to enter a narrow mountain valley with a single
rail line, fronting on the fortifications of Knoxville and Chatta-

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 69

nooga. Moreover, this would most likely mean simply sacrificing
the troops of Beauregard and Hardee, as well as the other Con-
federate forces in North Carolina, and exposing his flank to
Sherman. Or debouching on Petersburg, turning Grant’s left flank,
and moving directly south against Sherman? This is risky, but it is
the most advantageous move, the only way of gathering around him
the remnants of the fleeing armies, holding up Grant by destroying
the rail lines and bridges, and falling upon Sherman with superior
forces. If Sherman accepts battle, with the whole Southern army
against him, he will doubtless be defeated, while if he falls back to
the coast, he opens Lee’s road to Augusta, where the latter can give
his army its first breathing spell. But in that event Sherman and
Grant would certainly join forces, and Lee would again be faced
with superior forces, and this time he would have to fight in the
open field, as I do not believe the Confederates can again assemble
enough fortress guns at any point within the country to organize a
new Richmond. But even if they did so, they would have escaped
one trap only to fall into another. The last alternative is an invasion
of the North. Jefferson Davis is fully capable of it, but if they did
this, everything would be over in two weeks.

Lee might also send only part of his forces southward to stop
Sherman, together with Beauregard and the others. This seems to
to me to be the most likely way out. In that event, Sherman will
probably “give them a thrashing,” as they say in Southern Germany,
and then there will be nothing more that Lee can do. But even
if Sherman should be defeated, Lee would have gained only one
month’s respite, and the troops advancing up from the coast on all
sides — not to mention Grant’s victories over the weakened Rich-
mond army in the meanwhile — would soon make his position as bad
as it had been before. Come what may, the war is coming to an end,
and I wait for every steamer with the greatest impatience, for excit-
ing news reports are now raining down. The strategic speculations
of the numerous southern sympathizers over here are extremely
funny: they all boil down to the maxim of the Polish-Palatine
General Sznayde, who, every time he ran away, said: “We are
acting exactly like Kossuth.”

I am very grateful for your information on the American armed
forces— without it I could not have gotten a clear picture of a
number of problems of the war being fought over there. I have
known the “Napoleon” guns for a long time; the British had already
abandoned them (they are light, smooth-bore 12-pounder cannon,
with a charge weighing one-quarter that of the shell) when Louis
Bonaparte invented them anew. You can purchase as many Prussian

MARX AND ENGELS

howitzers as you want, as they have all been withdrawn from service
and replaced by the rifled 4-pounders and 6-pounders (which fire
13-pound and 9-pound shells). I am not at all surprised that the
angle of elevation of your howitzers is only 5 0 ; for the angle of
elevation was no higher in the old French long howitzers (before
1856), while, if I am not mistaken, the British are not much better.
For a long time the Germans have been the only ones to use high-
angle fire with howitzers, but the latter’s inaccuracy, especially in
range, brought them into disrepute.

I come now to other matters.

A Frankfurt lawyer by the name of von Schweitzer established
himself in Berlin with a little newspaper, Der Social-Demokrat, and
asked us to write for it. As Liebknecht, who is in Berlin, was to
join the editorial board, we accepted. But then an insufferable
Lassalle cult began to develop in the paper, while we learned
positively (old lady Hatzfeldt told it to Liebknecht and asked him
to work along those lines) that Lassalle was involved with Bismarck
much more deeply than we had ever known. An actual alliance
existed between them, which had gone so far that Lassalle was to
go to Schleswig-Holstein and there advocate the annexation of the
duchies to Prussia, whereas Bismarck had made less definite promises
concerning the introduction of a sort of universal suffrage, and more
specific promises regarding the right of coalition and social conces-
sions, government support for workers’ associations, and the like.
The stupid Lassalle had absolutely no guarantees from Bismarck;
au contraire [on the contrary], he would have been thrown into
jail sans fagon [unceremoniously] as soon as he became troublesome.
The gentlemen of the Social-Demokrat knew this and nevertheless
continued with the Lassalle cult more and more intensively. And
then these fellows let themselves be intimidated by the threats made
by YVagener (of the Kreuzzeitung), and began to pay court to
Bismarck, flirt with him, etc, etc This began to be too much. We
printed the enclosed declaration and withdrew, Liebknecht also
resigning. The Social-Demokrat then declared that we did not
belong to the Social-Democratic Party; this excommunication set
us at ease, of course. The whole Lassallean Allgemeiner Deutscher
Arbeiterverein [General Association of German Workers] is on such

a false track that nothing can be done; moreover, it won't last
long.

1 was asked to write on military problems, which I did, but in
the meanwhile the tensions increased, and the article turned into a
pamphlet, which I have had printed separately; I am sending you

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

7 1

a copy by this steamer. 1 According to the papers I receive, the
thing seems to be causing a considerable scandal, particularly along
the Rhine; in any event it will do a lot to keep the workers from
joining up with reaction right away.

The International Association in London is progressing splen-
didly. Especially in Paris, but no less so in London. It is doing well
in Switzerland and Italy, too. Only the German Lassalleans refuse
to bite, especially not under the present circumstances. We are
getting letters and offers, however, from all over Germany; things
have taken a definite turn, and the rest will follow. . . .

Yours,

F. Engels

ADDRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKINGMEN'S
ASSOCIATION TO PRESIDENT JOHNSON 2
To Andrew Johnson,

President of the United States.

Sir:

The demon of the “peculiar institution," for the supremacy of
which the South rose in arms, would not allow his worshippers to
honorably succumb on the open field. What he had begun in treason,
he must needs end in infamy. As Philip II.'s war for the Inquisition
bred a Gerard, thus Jefferson Davis' pro-slavery war a Booth. 3

It is not our part to call words of sorrow and horror, while the
heart of two worlds heaves with emotion. Even the sycophants who,
year after year, and day by day, stuck to their Sisyphus work of
morally assassinating Abraham Lincoln and the great republic he
headed stand now aghast at this universal outburst of popular feeling,
and rival with each other to strew rhetorical flowers on his open
grave. They have now at last found out that he was a man neither to
be browbeaten by adversity nor intoxicated by success, inflexibly
pressing on to his great goal, never compromising it by blind haste,
slowly maturing his steps, never retracing them, carried away by no

1 Die preussische Militarfrage and die deutsche Arbeiterpartei [The Military
Question in Prussia and the German Workers Party], Hamburg, 1865.

8 Written in English by Marx and adopted by the General Council of the Inter-
national Workingmen’s Association on May 13, 1865. Published in The Bee-Hive ,
London, May 20, 1865.

8 Balthazar Gerard, the agent of Philip II of Spain, on July 10, 1584, assassinated
William of Orange, leader of the Netherlands Seven United Provinces which were
engaged in a mortal struggle for independence from Spain. John Wilkes Booth
was the assassin of Abraham Lincoln.

MARX AND ENGELS

surge of popular favor, disheartened by no slackening of the popular
pulse, tempering stern acts by the gleams of a kind heart, illuminat-
ing scenes dark with passion by the smile of humor, doing his titanic
work as humbly and homely as heaven-born rulers do little things
with die grandiloquence of pomp and state; in one word, one of the
rare men who succeed in becoming great without ceasing to be
good. Such, indeed, was the modesty of this great and good man
that the world only discovered him a hero after he had fallen a
martyr.

To be singled out by the side of such a chief, the second victim to
the infernal gods of slavery, was an honor due to Mr. Seward. Had
he not, at a time of general hesitation, the sagacity to foresee and
the manliness to foretell “the irrepressible conflict”? Did he not, in
the darkest hours of that conflict, prove true to the Roman duty to
never despair of the republic and its stars? We earnestly hope that
he and his son will be restored to health, public activity, and well-
deserved honors within much less than “90 days.”

After a tremendous war, but which, if we consider its vast dimen-
sions, and its broad scope, and compare it to the Old World's Hun-
dred Years’ Wars, and Thirty Years' Wars, and Twenty-Three
Years' Wars, 1 can hardly be said to have lasted 90 days, yours, Sir,
has become the task to uproot by the law what has been felled by the
sword, to preside over the arduous work of political reconstruction
and social regeneration. A profound sense of your great mission
w f ill save you from any compromise with stern duties. You will never
forget that to initiate the new era of the emancipation of labor,
the American people devolved the responsibilities of leadership
upon two men of labor— the one Abraham Lincoln, the other
Andrew Johnson.

1 The Years’ War is the name given the series of contests waged by the

English kings between 1337 and 1453 for possession of the French crown and
^territory. The great religious struggles between 1618 and 1648 are called
the Thirty Years’ War. These struggles marked the climax of the Reformation
and closed the period of distinctively religious wars in Europe. The Twenty-
ree Years’ War refers to the period of almost uninterrupted European warfare
rom 1740 to 1763. It includes the First Silesian War (1740-42), the War of the
vZTf d Succ ^ sl °? ('741-48). the Second Silesian War (1744-45), the raid of the
? , g i^ tender lnto England (' 745 - 46 ). and the Seven Years’ War (1756-65),

Ih l Jj l } n * nc ** a anc * ln *754 * n North America, where it is known

as the French and Indian War.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

MARX TO MEYER

Hannover, April 30, 1867

Dear Friend:

You must have a very bad opinion of me, the more so when I
tell you that your letters not only gave me great pleasure, but were
a real solace for me during the harrowing period when I received
them. Knowing that an able man, a la hauteur des principes [of
high principle], is secured for the party compensates me for the
worst. Moreover, your letters were filled with the kindest friendship
for me personally, and you will understand that I, who am engaged
in the bitterest conflict with the whole (official) world, can least
underestimate this.

Well, why didn’t I answer you? Because I was constantly hovering
at the edge of the grave. Hence I had to make use of every moment
when I was able to work to complete my book, to which I
have sacrificed health, happiness, and family. I trust that this
explanation needs no further postscript. I laugh at the so-called
“practical” men and their wisdom. If one chose to be an ox,
one could of course turn one’s back on the sufferings of mankind
and look after one’s own skin. But I should have really regarded
myself as impractical if I had pegged out without completely
finishing my book, at least in manuscript.

The first volume of the work will be published in a few weeks by
Otto Meissner in Hamburg. The title is: Capital , a Critique of
Political Economy . I have come to Germany in order to bring
the manuscript across and am staying for a few weeks with a friend
[Dr. Ludwig Kugelmann] in Hannover on my way back to London.

Volume I comprises the “Process of Capitalist Production.” Besides
the general theoretical exposition, I describe in great detail, from
hitherto unused official sources, the condition of the English agri-
cultural and industrial proletariat during the last 20 years, ditto
Irish conditions. You will, of course, understand that all this only
serves me as an “argumentum ad hominem” 1 I hope that the whole
work will have been published in a year from now. Volume II gives
the continuation and conclusion of the theories. Volume III the
history of political economy from the middle of the seventeenth
century .*

As for the International Workingmen's Association, it has become

1 Turning the weapons of the adversary (i.e., the English bourgeoisie) against
itself.

3 Marx intended to publish the continuation of the first volume of Capital in
one volume; this volume grew into two. Consequently the volume that had been
planned as Volume III (Theories of Surplus Value) , was later numbered IV.
(See Engels’ Preface to Vol. II of Capital.)

^ MARX AND ENGELS

1 power in England, France, Switzerland, and Belgium. Establish
as many branches as possible in America. Dues per member one
penny (about one silbergroschen) per annum, but every group con-
tributes what it can. Congress this year in Lausanne, September 3rd.
Write me about these things, about how you yourself are getting
on in America, and about general conditions. If you keep silent,

1 shall consider it proof that you still haven't forgiven me.

Cordially yours,

Karl Marx

MARX TO MEYER

London, July 4, 1868

Dear Friend:

... I enclose credentials for Sorge. We are in direct communica-
tion with Whaley, Sylvis, and Jessup.

The Commonwealth ceased publication a long time ago. Weekly
reports on the meetings of the General Council [of the First Inter-
national] are printed in the Bee-Hive. But this paper is a narrow-
minded trade-union organ, which is far from representing our views.

Up to now German press reviews of my book [Capital]— most of
them quite favorable— have appeared in the following newspapers:
Die Zukunft, the Stuttgart Beobachter, the Wurttemberg Staatsan-
zeiger, the Frankfurter Borsenzeitung, the Hamburger Borsenzeitung ,
the Hamburg Anzeiger , etc., and in Hannover papers and papers in
the Rhine Province and Westphalia. Especially comprehensive re-
views in the form of a series of articles were published in Schweitzer's
Social-Demokrat (Berlin) and in the Elberfelder Zeitung. Both of
these papers (though the latter is a liberal bourgeois newspaper)
openly took my side.

The big bourgeois and reactionary papers, such as the Kolnische
[Zeitung], the Augsburger [Zeitung], the Neue Preussische [Zeitung],
the Vossische [Zeitung], etc., are careful to keep their mouths shut.

The only thing that has appeared in the camp of official political
economy is the report by Dr. Diihring (privatdozent at the Univer-
sity of Berlin, an adherent of Carey's) , printed at the beginning of
the year in the Hildburghauser Erganzungsbldtter. (The report is
fainthearted, but on the whole sympathetic.) An article was also
published in the July issue of the economic journal edited by
Faucher and Michaelis. But Faucher's comments are, of course,
what one would expect from the buffoon and hired jester of
Bastiat's German disciples.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

I should be very glad to have you send me newspapers from time
to time, but it would be particularly useful to me if you could
collect some anti-bourgeois material on land-ownership and agri-
cultural conditions in the United States. As I am dealing with land
rent in Volume II [Capital], material attacking H. Carey's harmonies
would be particularly welcome.

Best regards. Salut,

Yours,

K. Marx

Enclosure London, July 4, 1868

We recommend Mr. Sorge to all the friends of the International
Workingmen’s Association, and we likewise empower him to act in
the name of and on the behalf of this Association.

For the General Council of the International Workingmen's
Association,

Karl Marx
Secretary for Germany

ADDRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKINGMEN'S
ASSOCIATION TO THE NATIONAL LABOR UNION 1
Fellow Workmen:

In the inaugural address of our association we said: “It was not
the wisdom of the ruling classes, but the heroic resistance to their
criminal folly by the working classes of England that saved the
West of Europe from plunging headlong into an infamous crusade
for the perpetuation and propagation of slavery on the other side
of the Atlantic.'' It is now your turn to prevent a war whose direct
result would be to throw back, for an indefinite period, the rising
labor movement on both sides of the Atlantic.

We need hardly tell you that there are European powers anxiously
engaged in fomenting a war between the United States and England.
A glance at the statistics of commerce shows that the Russian export
of raw products — and Russia has nothing else to export — was giving
way to American competition when the Civil War tipped the scales.
To turn the American ploughshare into a sword would at this time
save from impending bankruptcy a power whom your republican
statesmen in their wisdom had chosen for their confidential adviser.
But disregarding the particular interests of this or that government,

1 Written in English by Marx and adopted by the General Council of the Inter-
national Workingmen’s Association on May 11, 1869.

MARX AND ENGELS

is it not in the general interest of our oppressors to disturb by a
war the movement of rapidly extending international cooperation?

In our congratulatory address to Mr. Lincoln on the occasion
of his re-election to the Presidency 1 we expressed it as our conviction
that die Civil War would prove to be as important to the progress of
the working class as the War of Independence has been to die eleva-
tion of the middle class. And the successful close of the war against
slavery has indeed inaugurated a new era in the annals of the working
class In the United States itself an independent labor movement
has since arisen which the old parties and the professional politicians
view with distrust. But to bear fruit it needs years of peace. To sup-
press it, a war between the United States and England would be the
sure means.

The immediate tangible result of the Civil War was of course a
deterioration of the condition of the American workingmen. Both
in the United States and in Europe the colossal burden of a public
debt was shifted from hand to hand in order to settle it upon the
shoulders of the working class. The prices of necessaries, remarks one
of your statesmen, have risen 78 per cent since i860, while the wages
of simple manual labor have risen 50 and those of skilled labor 60
per cent. “Pauperism," he complains, “is increasing in America more
rapidly than population." Moreover the sufferings of the working
class are in glaring contrast to the newfangled luxury of financial
aristocrats, shoddy aristocrats, and other vermin bred by war. Still
the Civil War offered a compensation in the liberation of the slaves
and the impulse which it thereby gave to your own class movement.
Another war, not sanctified by a sublime aim or a social necessity
but like the wars of the Old World, would forge chains for the
free workingmen instead of sundering those of the slave. The
accumulated misery which it would leave in its wake would furnish
your capitalists at once with the motive and the means of separating
the working class from their courageous and just aspirations by the
soulless sword of a standing army. Yours, then, is the glorious task
of seeing to it that at last the working class shall enter upon the
scene of history, no longer as a servile following, but as an inde-
pendent powder, as a power imbued with a sense of its responsibility
and capable of commanding peace where their would-be masters
cry war.

J See pp. 65-66.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

MARX TO MEYER AND VOGT

London, April 9, 1870

Dear Meyer and Dear Vogt:

. . . After occupying myself with the Irish question for many years
I have come to the conclusion that the decisive blow against the
English ruling classes (and it will be decisive for the workers’ move-
ment all over the world) can not be delivered in England but only in
Ireland. On December 1, 1869, the General Council issued a con-
fidential circular drawn up by me in French (for the reaction upon
England only the French, not the German, papers are important),
on the relation of the Irish national struggle to the emancipation
of the working class, and therefore on the attitude which the Inter-
national Workingmen’s Association should take toward the Irish
question.

I will here only give you in brief the decisive points.

Ireland is the bulwark of the English landed aristocracy. The
exploitation of this country is not only one of the main sources of
their material wealth, it is their greatest moral strength. They, in
fact, represent the domination of England over Ireland. Ireland is
therefore the grand moyen [great means] by which the English
aristocracy maintains its domination in England itself.

On the other hand, should the English army and police move out
of Ireland tomorrow, you would at once have an agrarian revolution
in Ireland. But the overthrow of the English aristocracy in Ireland
involves and has as a necessary consequence its overthrow in Eng-
land. And this would fulfill the prerequisite for the proletarian
revolution in England. The destruction of the English landed
aristocracy in Ireland is an infinitely easier operation than in
England itself, because the land question has hitherto been the
exclusive form of the social question in Ireland, because it is a
question of existence, of life and death, for the immense majority
of the Irish people, and because it is at the same time inseparable
from the national question. Quite apart from the passionate
character of the Irish and the fact that they are more revolutionary
than the English.

As for the English bourgeoisie, they have d’abord [in the first
place] a common interest with the aristocracy in transforming Ire-
land into a mere pasture land, which provides the English market
with meat and wool at the cheapest possible prices. It has the same
interest in reducing the Irish population to such a small number,
by eviction and forcible emigration, that English capital (leasehold
capital) can function with “security" in that country. They have the

MARX AND ENGELS

same interest in clearing the estate of Ireland as they had in the
clearing of the agricultural districts of England and Scotland. The
£6000— £8000 absentee and other Irish revenues which at present
flow annually to London have likewise to be taken into account.*

But the English bourgeoisie has also much more important
interests in the present Irish regime. Owing to the constantly in-
creasing concentration of leaseholds, Ireland constantly supplies
its own surplus to the English labor market and thus forces down
wages and the moral and material position of the English working
class.

And most important of all! Every industrial and commercial
center in England now possesses a working-class population divided
into two hostile camps, English proletarians and Irish proletarians.
The ordinary English worker hates the Irish worker as a competitor
who lowers his standard of life. In relation to the Irish worker he
feels himself a member of the ruling nation and so turns himself
into a tool of the aristocrats and capitalists against Ireland, thus
strengthening their domination over himself. He cherishes religious,
social, and national prejudices against the Irish worker. His attitude
towards him is much the same as that of the “poor whites” to the
Negroes in the former slave states of the U. S. A. The Irishman
pays him back with interest in his own money. He regards the Eng-
lish worker as both the accomplice and the stupid tool of English
rule in Ireland.

This antagonism is artificially kept alive and intensified by the
press, the pulpit, the comic papers, in short by all the means at the
disposal of the ruling classes. This antagonism is the secret of the
impotence of the English working class, despite their organization.
It is the secret by which the capitalist class maintains its power.
The latter is well aware of this.

But the evil does not stop here. It continues across the ocean. The
antagonism between English and Irish is the hidden basis of the
conflict between the United States and England. It makes any honest
and serious co-operation between the working classes of the two
countries impossible. It enables the governments of both countries
to break the edge of the social conflict, whenever they think fit, by
their mutual bullying and, in case of need, by war between the two
countries.

England, as the metropolis of capital, as the power that has
hitherto ruled the world market, is for the time being the most
important country for the workers' revolution, and moreover the

£6000— £8000 refers to the average income of an absentee landlord.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

only country in which the material conditions for this revolution
have developed to a certain degree of maturity. Therefore to
hasten the social revolution in England is the most important object
of the International Workingmen’s Association. The sole means of
hastening it is to make Ireland independent.

Hence the task of the International is everywhere to put the
conflict between England and Ireland in the foreground, and every-
where to side openly with Ireland. The special task of the Central
Council in London is to awaken the English workers to a realiza-
tion of the fact that for them the national emancipation of Ireland
is no question of abstract justice or humanitarian sentiment but the
first condition of their own emancipation.

These are, roughly, the principal points made in the circular
letter, which thereby likewise set forth the raisons d'etre [motives]
for the General Council’s resolutions on the Irish Amnesty. Shortly
thereafter I sent a sharp anonymous article on how the British were
treating the Fenians, etc., attacking Gladstone, etc.— to the Interna-
tionale (the organ of our Belgian Central Committee in Brussels).
In the same article, I accused the French republicans (the Mar-
seillaise had printed a stupid article on Ireland written over here
by the miserable Talandier) of centering all their coleres [indigna-
tion], in their national egotism, on the French Empire.

This worked. My daughter Jenny, over the signature of “J.
Williams” (in a private letter to the editors she had used the name
of Jenny Williams), wrote a series of articles for the Marseillaise and
also published a letter from O’Donovan Rossa. Hence immense
noise.

After years of cynical refusal, Gladstone was thereby finally
compelled to agree to a Parliamentary inquiry into the treatment
of the Fenian prisoners. Jenny is now the regular correspondent
on Irish affairs for the Marseillaise. (This is between us, of course.)
The British government and the British press are murderously
furious that the Irish problem is now on the ordre du jour [order of
the day] in France and that this canaille is now being watched and
exposed throughout the Continent, via Paris.

This stone also brought down another bird. We thus forced the
Irish leaders, journalists, and the like in Dublin to enter into rela-
tions with us, something that the General Council had been unable
to achieve previously!

In America you have a broader field for work along the same
lines. A coalition of the German workers with the Irish (as well as
with those English and American workers who are ready to do so)
is the most important job you could start on at the present time.

go MARX AND ENGELS

This must be done in the name of the International. The social

significance of the Irish problem must be made clear

& Salut et fratemitil

Karl Marx

MARX TO SORGE

[London] September 1, 1870

Dear Mr. Sorge:

My continued silence in the face of your several letters was due
to two circumstances: at first “overwork/* later very serious illness.
At the beginning of August the doctors sent me to the seashore. But
there a violent sciatica bent me double for weeks. I have been back
in London only since yesterday, by no means fully recovered.

First of all, my best thanks for what you have sent me, especially
the Labor Statistics, which are of great value to me.

Now I shall briefly answer the questions in your various letters.

Hume 1 was empowered to carry on propaganda among the
Yankees, but has exceeded his powers. I shall submit the matter to
the General Council next Tuesday, with an exhibition of his “cards.”

As for the “secretaryship** for the U. S., the matter stands as fol-
lows: I am secretary for the German branches over there, Dupont
for the French, and lastly Eccarius for the Yankees and the English-
speaking section. In our public declarations, therefore, Eccarius
figures as “Secretary for the U. S.** Otherwise we should have to
employ useless circumlocutions. I, for instance, would also have to
sign as “Secretary for the Russian Branch*’ in Geneva, and so on.
Moreover, Eccarius himself plainly set forth the state of affairs in a
New York paper — in connection with Cluseret. 2

Next week I shall send you a pack of membership cards.

The miserable behavior of Paris during the war [Franco-Prussian
War of 1870-71]— still allowing itself to be ruled by the mamelukes
of Louis Bonaparte and of the Spanish adventuress Eugenie after
these appalling defeats— shows how much the French need a tragic
lesson in order to regain their manhood.

What the Prussian jackasses do not see is that the present war is

3 Hume was an American reformer and had had membership cards of the Inter-
national Workingmen’s Association printed for himself with all sorts of phrase-
ology of the French Revolution.

2 Gustave Cluseret, Minister of War in the Paris Commune from April 3 to
April 30, i 87 i, claimed to represent the International Workingmen’s Association
in the United States.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

leading just as inevitably to a war between Germany and Russia as
the War of 1866 led to the war between Prussia and France. This is
the best result that I expect from Germany. “Prussianism” as such
never has existed, and can never exist, except in alliance with and
in subjection to Russia. And such a war No. 2 will act as the midwife
of the inevitable social revolution in Russia.

I regret that some misunderstanding on the part of my friend
Vogt which is incomprehensible to me has led to a wrong opinion
regarding Schily. Schily is not only one of my oldest and most
intimate personal friends; he is one of the ablest, most courageous,
and most reliable members of the party.

I am very glad that Meyer is going to Cincinnati as a delegate. 1

Most faithfully yours,

Karl Marx

I should like to have a look at the Kellogg money nonsense 2
(merely a variety of Bray, Gray, Bronterre O’Brien, etc., in
England and of Proudhon in France) in the original. The stuff can-
not be gotten here.

K. M.

MARX TO MEYER

[London] January 21, 1871

Dear Meyer:

. . . We have worked up a powerful movement among the working
class over here against Gladstone (in support of the French Repub-
lic), which will probably bring about his downfall. At the present
time Prussia is wholly under the sway of the Russian Cabinet. If it
gains a conclusive victory, the heroic German philistine will get
what he deserves. Unfortunately, the present French government
thinks it can wage a revolutionary war without a revolution. . . .

The semiofficial Archives of Forensic Medicine is published in St.
Petersburg (in Russian). One of the physicians writing for this
journal published an article, “On the Hygienic Conditions of the
Western European Proletariat/* in the last quarto issue, chiefly
quoting my book [Capital], and mentioning the source. This re-

>To the August 1870 convention of the National Labor Union.

* Edward Kellogg, a small merchant in New York, having lost his property
in the crisis of 1837, developed a plan for financial reform which he first published
in 1848 under the title, Labor and Other Capital. Kellogg’s ideas began to win
influence in the labor movement during the Civil War. During the period from
1867 to 1872, when Greenbackism or monetary reform dominated the ideology
of the labor movement, Kellogg’s influence was at its height.

MARX AND ENGELS

suited in the following calamity: the censor was severely rebuked
by the Minister of the Interior, the editor-in-chief was fired, and
that issue of the journal-all the copies they could still get hold of
—was consigned to the flames!

I don't know whether I told you that at the beginning of 1870
I began to study Russian, which I now read fairly fluently. This
came about after I had received Flerovsky's very important work on
The Condition of the Working Class (Especially the Peasants) in
Russia from St. Petersburg; I also wanted to familiarize myself with
the (excellent) economic works of Chernyshevsky (who was rewarded
by being sentenced to the Siberian mines for the past seven years).
The result was worth the effort that a man of my age must make
to master a language, differing so greatly from the classical, Ger-
manic, and Romance languages. The intellectual movement now
taking place in Russia testifies to the fact that fermentation is
occurring deep below the surface. Minds are always connected by
invisible threads with the body of the people. . . .

Regards to you and Vogt,

Yours,

Karl Marx

I wrote to my old friend G. J. Harney, who is now Assistant
Secretary' of State of Massachusetts, concerning the public lands.

MARX TO BOLTE

Brighton, August 25, 1871

Dear Mr. Bolte:

I have been here for about two weeks, sent by the doctor because
my health was very much impaired as a result of overwork. I shall
probably return to London next week, however.

Next week you will receive an appeal from the General Council
for the refugee Communards. Most of them are in London (over 80 to
90 by now). The General Council has kept them above water up to
now, but in the past two weeks our funds have melted away so fast,
while the number of arrivals increases daily, that they are in a
very deplorable condition. I hope that everything possible will be
done in New York. In Germany all the resources of the party are
still absorbed by the victims of the police persecution there, as is
the case in Austria, as well as in Spain and Italy. In Switzerland they
not only have a part of the refugees themselves to support, though
only a small part, but they also have to aid the Internationals as a

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

result of the St. Gall lockout. 1 Lastly, in Belgium there also are some
of the refugees, though only a few of them, and, what is more, the
Belgians have to aid them, particularly in getting them through to
London.

Owing to these circumstances, up to the present all the funds for
the bulk of the refugees in London have been raised exclusively in
England.

The General Council now includes the following members of
the Commune: Serraillier, Vaillant, Theisz, Longuet, and Frankel,
and the following agents of the Commune: Delahaye, Rochat,
Bastelica and Chalain.

I have sent the New York Herald a statement in which I disclaim
all responsibility for its correspondent's absurd and wholly falsified
report of his conversation with me. I do not know whether it has
printed the statement. 2

Give Sorge my regards. I shall answer his letter next week.

Faithfully yours,

Karl Marx

MARX TO CONWAY 3

[London, August 29, 1871]

Dear Sir:

Upon my return from Brighton I found your note, dated August
24.* The next session of the General Council will take place today,
but as it will continue debate on the courts-martial in France, no
outside visitors will be allowed to be present, in accordance with a
resolution adopted last Tuesday. This strict regulation was made
necessary by the penetration of detectives and spies of the French
police into our sessions.

I have the honor to enclose a list of the French refugees. Their
number (about 80-90 at the present time) is constantly increasing,
day by day, while our funds are completely exhausted. The situation

1 A strike of textile finishers in St. Gall, Switzerland, that began on June 13,
1871, was countered by a city-wide employers’ lockout of all workers who refused
to sign affidavits that they were not members of the International Workingmen s
Association.

*The statement was not carried in the New York Herald.

•This letter was written in English.

4 Moncure D. Conway had inquired about the date of the next session of the
General Council.

MARX AND ENGELS

is truly deplorable. It would be best to form a special committee,
if possible, to take over the job of finding work for the refugees,
most of whom are skilled workers and professional men.

Sincerely yours,

Karl Marx

MARX TO SORGE

[London] September 12, 1871

Dear Mr. Sorge:

Kindly transmit the enclosed letter from our Irish secretary,
McDonnell, to J. Devoy.

I had no time to reply to you in greater detail. We are so extremely
busy here at the present time that I have been compelled for the
past three months (and still am) to interrupt some very urgent
theoretical work.

I shall merely say in regard to the Statutes that the English edition
is the sole authentic one. 1 The conference 2 will issue authentic ver-
sions in English, French, and German, which is also necessary because
several congress decisions relating to the Statutes must be incor-
porated in them.

The Central Committee in New York must not forget:

1. That the General Council had contacts in America long before
the Committee was established; 3

2. That, as far as the Address is concerned, 4 it was on sale in
London, and hence anybody had the right to send it to his friend in
America at his own expense. The first shipment to New York was
so small because the first edition was sold out in two days, which is
why I did not get the number of copies allotted for my shipments.

3. In Par. 6 of the Statutes it is expressly stated that: “no inde-
pendent local society shall be precluded from directly corresponding

1 The French version of the Statutes did not fully correspond with the English
version.

2 The Franco-Prussian War and the suppression of the Commune had pre-
vented the convening of the regular congress of the International Workingmen’s
Association on the scheduled date. The General Council had therefore decided to
hold a conference in London. It was held September 17-23, 1871.

3 The North American Central Committee had complained of the damage to its
work caused by the private correspondence of various members of the General
Council, particularly Eccarius, with persons in the United States.

4 The Address of the International Workingmen’s Association on the Civil War
in France, which Marx wrote in defense of the Paris Commune.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

with the General Council/' and in Washington, for example, the
branch declared that it did not want to enter into contact with New
York.

Saint fraternel,

Karl Marx

MARX TO SORGE

[London] November 6, 1871

Dear Friend:

Today 100 copies (50 French and 50 English) of the conference
resolutions are being sent off to New York. The decisions not
intended for publication will be communicated to you later.

A new, revised edition of the Statutes and Regulations is being
published in English tomorrow, and you will receive 1,000 copies
for sale in America (1 d. each). The text must not be translated into
French and German in New York, as we are issuing official editions
in both languages. Write us how many copies in each language will
be wanted.

I have turned over the correspondence with the German Section
and the New York Committee to Eccarius (he has been appointed to
handle that at my suggestion), since my time does not allow me to
perform this function properly.

Section 12 (New York) 1 has submitted proposals to the General
Council that it be constituted the leader in America. Eccarius will
have sent the decisions against these pretensions and for the present
Committee to Section 12.

As for the Washington branch 2 (which has sent the General
Council a list of its members), the New York Committee went too far.

1 Section 12, dominated by the Woodhull-Claflin sisters and their supporters,
had issued a bombastic appeal to the citizens of the Union. Section 1 protested
against this appeal and fought against the efforts of Section 12 to pervert the
proletarian character of the International. The Woodhull-Claflin section called
for women’s suffrage, the right of women to hold public office, free love, a world
language, and pantarchy (the rule of all). It bitterly attacked all those who resisted
its attempt to capture the leadership of the International in the United States.
But the proletarian sections combated the maneuvers of these petty-bourgeois
reformers, and when on November 19, 1871, the Central Committee of the Inter-
national in New York was dissolved, the representatives of the proletarian sections
immediately formed a Provisional Federal Council and appealed to the General
Council in London.

2 This was Section No. 23, consisting of journalists and government employees
in Washington, native-born Americans, who took a vigorous stand against the
Woodhull-Claflin clique.

MARX AND ENGELS

It had no right to demand anything but the number of members and
the name, etc., of the corresponding secretary.

More in the next letter (this week).

K.M.

MARX TO SORGE

[London] November 9, 1871

Dear Friend: . r * ,

I sent you 100 Conference Resolutions day before yesterday, 50

English and 50 French.

This week 1,000 copies of the English Revised and Official Statutes
and Regulations will be sent to you. 1 ry to sell them. 1 he General
Council has large expenditures to make as a result of the various
tasks set it by the conference.

We shall have an official French edition of the Revised Statutes,
etc., printed in Geneva, and the official German edition printed in
Leipzig. Write us approximately how many copies of each will be
required in the United States.

A section of the International, Section francaise de i8yi (about
24 strong), has been formed here among the French refugees, which
immediately clashed with the General Council because we demanded
changes in its statutes. It will probably result in a split. These people
are working together with some of the French refugees in Switzer-
land, who in turn are intriguing with the men of the Alliance de la
Democratie Socialiste } which we dissolved. The object of their
attack is not the governments and ruling classes of Europe, allied
against us, but the General Council of London, and particularly my
humble self. This is their gratitude for my having lost nearly five
months in work for the refugees and having acted as their vindicator
through the Address on the Civil War.

I defended them even at the conference, where the delegates from
Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, and Holland expressed their misgiv-
ings lest the General Council endanger its international character
through too large an admixture of French refugees. But in the eyes
of these “Internationalists” it is in itself a sin for “German” influence
(because of German science) to predominate in the General Council.

'The Alliance of Socialist Democracy, which attempted to take over the
International Workingmen’s Association and transform it into an anarchist center,
was organized by Michael Bakunin in 1868.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

As for the New York Central Committee, the following:

1 According to the conference decisions, see II: 1, in the future,
it must call itself Federal Council or Federal Committee of
United States.

2 As soon as a much larger number of branches has been estab-
lished in the different states, the most practical thing to do ts to call
1 rnnrress of the different sections - following the example of Bel-

and Spain - to elect a Federal Council or Com-
mittee in New York.

, Federal committees can in turn be established in the«y
states - as soon as they have a sufficient number of branches
which the New York Committee functions as the central point.

4- The definitive

ir sanction before their pub-
lication. . ..

We are making rapid progress in Italy. A great lril ’^ > . ° 5

mittee, Bracke el al, has been transmuted to me

d °ATof n us regret that you intend to resign from the Committee 1

accident did »e see a copy of tins number. ^

Karl Marx

ENGELS lO CUNO London, November 13, 1871

* Mars, daughter reported how the G ° Vernment

shadowed and molested her at every step dur g

MARX AND ENGELS

with the exception of Gazz[<?*fmo] Rosa, to which we send docu-
ments for publication, but which has made no suggestions to us for
the establishment of sections, etc. The movement in an inter-
nationalist spirit began in Italy so quickly and so unexpectedly
that everything is still in a quite unorganized state over there, and
moreover, as you know, the Mardocheans [the police] are doing
all they can to hamper the organization. That there are suitable
elements in Milan is evident from the very fact that the Gazz[ettino]
jR[osa] has readers; for the present the only thing you can do is to
seek them out. I promise to send you the address of the first one to
write me. This will most likely happen soon, since my name, as
secretary for Italy, will probably be well known everywhere soon
enough, thanks to the numerous forthcoming publications of the
General Council. Milan, as the principal center of Mazzinism up
to now and as a large industrial city, is also of especial importance to
us because with Milan we gain the industrial silk-manufacturing
district of Lombardy. Therefore, whatever you and your friends
may be able to do for the common cause in Milan will be particular-
ly worthwhile .

We have a strong section in Turin (its address: Proletario
Italiano); letters from Lodi (from the Plebe) that quite likely also
reported the formation of sections have been lost.

This morning I saw Ricciotti Garibaldi at Marx's; he is a very
intelligent young man, very even-tempered, but a soldier rather
than a thinker. He may turn out to be very useful, however. Even
the old man [Giuseppe Garibaldi] displayed more good-will than
clarity in his theoretical views, but none the less his last letter to
Petroni is of tremendous value to us. If his son manifests as true
an instinct as the old man in all great crises, he will be able to
accomplish a great deal. Can you get us a reliable address in Genoa?
\Ve need a reliable way of getting our publications to the old man
in Caprera, and R[icciotti Garibaldi] says that a lot is being con-
fiscated. . . .

Salut et fraternity,

F. Engels

MARX TO BOLTE

_ . , _ [London] November 23, 1871

Friend Bolter

I received your letter yesterday together with Sorge’s report.
1. First of all, as to the attitude of the General Council towards

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

the New York Federal Council, I trust that my letter already sent
to Sorge (and a letter to Speyer, which I authorized him to communi-
cate to Sorge confidentially) will have disposed of the extremely
wrong viewpoint of the German Section which you represent.

In the United States, as in every other country where the Inter-
national first has to be established, the General Council originally
had to authorize separate individuals and appoint them as its official
correspondents. But from the moment the New York Committee
had gained some consistency, these correspondents were dropped one
after the other, although they could not be eliminated all at once.

For some time past the official correspondence with formerly ap-
pointed authorized representatives has been confined to Eccarius'
correspondence with Jessup, and I see by your own letter that you
have no complaint at all to make regarding the latter.

Except for Eccarius, however, no one was to carry on official cor-
respondence with the United States but myself and Dupont as
correspondent (at the time) for the French sections, and whatever
correspondence he conducted was confined to the latter.

With the exception of yourself and Sorge, I have not carried on
any official correspondence at all. My correspondence with S. Meyer
is private correspondence, of which he has never published the
slightest detail, and which by its very nature could in no way be
troublesome or harmful to the New York Committee.

There is no doubt, on the other hand, that G. Harris and perhaps
Boon — two English members of the General Council — are carrying
on private correspondence with Internationals in New York, etc.
Both of them belong to the sect of the late Bronterre O Brien, and
are full of follies and crotchets, such as currency quackery, false
emancipation of women, and the like. They are thus by nature allies
of Section 12 in New York and its kindred souls.

The General Council has no right to forbid its members to con-
duct private correspondence. But if it could be proved to us:

Either that this private correspondence pretends to be official,

Or that it conteracts the activity of the General Council — whether
for publication or for quarrels with the New York Committee — the
necessary measures would be taken to prevent such mischief.

These O’Brienites, in spite of their follies, constitute an often
necessary counterweight to trade unionists in the Council. They are
more revolutionary, firmer on the land question, less nationalistic,
and not susceptible to bourgeois bribery in one form or another.
Otherwise they would have been kicked out long ago.

2. I was greatly astonished to see that German Section No. 1
suspects the General Council of any preference for bourgeois philan-

MARX AND ENGELS

thropists, sectarians, or amateur groups. The mattter is quite the
contrary.

The International was founded in order to replace the socialist
or semi-socialist sects by a real organization of the working class for
struggle. The original Statutes and the Inaugural Address show
this at a glance. On the other hand, the International could not
have maintained itself if the course of history had not already
smashed sectarianism. The development of socialist sectarianism and
that of die real labor movement always stand in inverse ratio to each
other. So long as the sects are justified (historically), the working
class is not yet ripe for an independent historical movement. As
soon as it has attained this maturity all sects are essentially reac-
tionary. For all that, what history exhibits everywhere was repeated
in the history of the International. What is antiquated tries to
reconstitute and assert itself within die newly acquired form.

And the history of the International was a continual struggle of
the General Council against the sects and against amateur experi-
ments, which sought to assert themselves within the International
against the real movement of the working class. This struggle was
conducted at the congresses, but far more in the private dealings
of the General Council with the individual sections.

In Paris, as the Proudhonists (Mutualists) were cofounders of the
-Association, they naturally held the reins there for the first few years.
Later, of course, collectivist, positivist, etc., groups were formed
in opposition to them.

In Germany — the Lassalle clique. I myself corresponded with the
notorious Schweitzer for two years and irrefutably proved to him
that Lassalle s organization 1 is a mere sectarian organization and,
as such, hostile to the organization of the real workers’ movement
aimed at by the International. He had his "reasons” for not under-
standing.

At the end of 1868 the Russian, Bakunin, joined the International
with the aim of forming inside it a second International under the
name of Alliance de la Democratic Socialiste, with himself as leader.
He -a man devoid of theoretical knowledge - claimed that this
separate body was to represent the scientific propaganda of the
International, and that this propaganda was to become the special
function of this second International within the International.

His program was a hash superficially scraped together from the

* n tBe * ea ^ CI *bip of his organization, the Allge-
£k« sc \ eT J Tbe,te ™ rei ’' (General Association of German Workers) was

£ “ ° f r ^J .{• B ‘ v ° n Sch , weit2er ’ * Frankfurt lawyer, who had become a fol-
tower of Lassalle in the early sixties. Sec p. 70 .

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

9 1

Right and the Left — equality of classes (!), abolition of the right
of inheritance as the starting point of the social movement (St.
Simonist nonsense), atheism as a dogma dictated to the members, etc.,
and as the main dogma (Proudhonist), abstention from the political
movement .

This children’s primer found favor (and still has a certain hold)
in Italy and Spain, where the real conditions for the workers’ move-
ment are as yet little developed, and among a few vain, ambitious,
and empty doctrinaires in French Switzerland and Belgium.

For Mr. Bakunin the doctrine (the rubbish he has scraped together
from Proudhon, St. Simon, etc.) was and is a secondary matter —
merely a means to his personal self-assertion. Though a nonentity
theoretically, he is in his element as an intriguer.

For years the General Council had had to fight against this con-
spiracy (which was supported up to a certain point by the French
Proudhonists, especially in southern France). At last, by means of
conference resolutions 1 : 2-3, IX, XVI, and XVII, it delivered its
long-prepared blow. 1

Obviously the General Council does not support in America what
it combats in Europe. Resolutions L2-3 and IX now give the New
York Committee the legal weapons with which to put an end to all
sectarianism and amateur groups, and, if necessary, to expel them.

3. The New York Committee will do well to express its full
agreement with the conference decisions in an official letter to the
General Council .

Bakunin, personally threatened moreover by Resolution XIV
(publication of the Nechayev trial in Fgalite) which will bring to
light his infamous doings in Russia, is making every possible effort
to get protests started against the conference among the remnants of
his following.

For this purpose he has got into contact with the demoralized
portion of the French refugees in Geneva and London (a numerically
weak component, anyway). The slogan issued is that the General
Council is dominated by Pan-Germanism (or Bismarckism). This

1 Resolutions 1:2 and 3 of the London Conference forbade all sectarian names
for sections, branches, etc., and prescribed that they should be exclusively desig-
nated as branches or sections of the International Workingmen s Association
with the addition of the name of their locality. Resolution IX stressed the neces-
sity of the political activity of the working class and declared that its economic
movement and its political activity are inseparably connected. Resolution XY I
declared the question of the Alliance de la Democratic Socialiste disposed of
since its secretary, N. Joukovsky, had declared the Alliance dissolved. Resolution
XVII permitted the Jura sections in Switzerland to adopt the name of Federation
Jurassienne and censured its organs, Pro^s and Solidarite.

MARX AND ENGELS

refers to the unpardonable fact that I am by birth a German and
actually do exercise a decisive intellectual influence upon the
General Council. (N. B. The German element in the Council is
two-thirds weaker numerically than either the English or the French.
The crime therefore consists in the fact that the English and French
elements are dominated by the German element theoretically (I) and
find this domination, i.e., German science, very useful and even
indispensable.)

In Geneva, under the patronage of the bourgeoise, Madame
Andr^e Leo (who at the Lausanne Congress was so shameless as to
denounce Ferr£ to his Versailles executioners), they have published
a paper, La Revolution Sociale, which polemizes against us in almost
literally the same words as the Journal de Geneve, the most reac-
tionary paper in Europe.

In London they tried to establish a French Section, of whose
activities you will find an example in No. 42 of Qui Vive?, which I
enclose. (Likewise the issue containing the letter from our French
Secretary, Serraillier.) This Section, consisting of twenty people
(including many mouchards [police spies]), has not been recognized
by the General Council, but another, a much larger section, has.

In fact, despite the intrigues of this bunch of scoundrels, we are
carrying on great propaganda in France — and in Russia, where they
know what value to place on Bakunin, and where my book on
capital is just being published in Russian.

The secretary of the first-mentioned French Section (the one not
recognized by us and now in process of complete dissolution) was
the same Durand whom we expelled from the Association as a
mouchard .

The Bakuninist abstentionists from politics, Blanc and Albert
Richard of Lyons, are now paid Bonapartist agents. The evidence is
in our hands. Bousquet (of the same clique in Geneva), the cor-
respondent in Beziers (Southern France), has been denounced to us
by the section there as a police agent.

4. With regard to the resolutions of the Conference, let me say
that the whole edition was in my hands, and that I sent them first
to New York (Sorge) as the most distant point.

If reports of the Conference — half true and half false — appeared
in the press before this, the blame for this rests on a delegate to the

Conference, against whom the General Council has instituted an
inquiry. 1

5. As for the Washington Section, it applied first to the General

1 This refers to reports by Eccarius in the New York World.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 93

Council in order to maintain contact with it as an independent sec-
tion. If the affair is settled, it is useless to return to it.

With regard to sections the following general remarks apply:

(a) According to Art. 7 of the Statutes, sections that wish to be
“independent” can apply directly to the General Council for admis-
sion (“no independent local society shall be precluded from directly
corresponding with the General Council”). II: Arts. 4 and 5 of the
Regulations: “Every new branch or society (this refers to ‘indepen-
dent local societies’) intending to join the International is bound
immediately to announce its adhesion to the General Council!

(II: Art. 4) and “The General Council has the right to admit or to
refuse the affiliation of any new branch, etc.” (II: Art. 5.)

(b) According to Art. 5 of the Regulations, however, the General
Council has to consult the Federal Councils or Committees before-
hand regarding admission, etc., and

(c) According to the decision of the Conference (see V: Art. 3 of
the Regulations), as a matter of course no section will be admitted
any more that takes a sectarian name, etc., or (V: Art. 2) does not
constitute itself simply as “Section of the International Working-
men’s Association.”

Kindly communicate this letter to the German Section you repre-
sent, and make use of its contents for action but not for publication.

Salut et fraternite,

Karl Marx

Capital has not been published in English or French as yet. A
French edition was being worked on but was discontinued as a
result of recent events.

Eccarius has been appointed, at my request, secretary for a
sections in the United States (with the exception of the French, for
which Le Moussu is secretary). Nevertheless I shall be glad to
answer any private questions that you or Sorge may address to me.
Engels has sent the article on the International from the Irish Repub-
lie to Italy for publication there.

In the future the Eastern Post, which contains the reports of the
General Council’s sessions, will be sent to New York regularly,

addressed to Sorge. #

N.B. as to political movement: The political movement of the
working class has, of course, as its final object the conquest of political
power for this class, and this requires, of course, a previous organ-
ization of the working class developed up to a certain point, whic

itself arises from its economic struggles.

But on the other hand, every movement in which the working
class comes out as a class against the ruling classes and tries to

MARX AND ENGELS

coerce them by pressure from without is a political movement. For
instance, the attempt in a particular factory, or even in a particular
trade, to force a shorter working day out of the individual capitalists
by strikes, etc., is a purely economic movement. The movement to
force through an eight-hour law, etc., however, is a political move-
ment. And in this way, out of the separate economic movements of
the workers there grows up everywhere a political movement, that
is to say a movement of the class , with the object of achieving its
interests in a general form, in a form possessing general, socially
coercive force. Though these movements presuppose a certain degree
of previous organization, they are in turn equally a means of
developing this organization.

Where the working class is not yet far enough advanced in its
organization to undertake a decisive campaign against the collective
power, ix. y the political power, of the ruling classes, it must at any
rate be trained for this by continual agitation against, and a hostile
attitude toward, the policies of the ruling classes. Otherwise it
remains a plaything in their hands, as the September revolution in
French 1 showed, and as is also proved up to a certain degree by
the game that Messrs. Gladstone and Co. still succeed in playing in
England up to the present time.

MARX TO SORGE 2

London, November 29, 1871

My dear Sorge:

I hope you have at last received at New York the resolutions
of the Conference and the different letters I sent you. Together with
this letter I am sending the three last Eastern Post reports on the
sittings of the General Council. They contain, of course, only what
is meant for public use.

In regard to financial matters I have only to remark:

1. The New York Committee need pay only 2d. per piece for the
pamphlets on the Civil War 3 it has received. It will pay id. per
piece for the Statutes and Regulations ii fur et mesure [in proportion]
that they are sold. But you ought to write us how many French and
German editions of the Statutes, etc., you need. Besides what you

1 This refers to the Revolution in Paris on September 4, 1870, following the col-
lapse of the Second Empire.

3 This letter was written in English.

8 The Civil War in France , the famous address of the General Council of the
International on the Paris Commune.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 95

want immediately, perhaps you will find it useful to have some
stock in reserve.

2. With regard to the money sent us for the refugees, the General
Council wants an express written declaration that the General
Council alone is responsible for its distribution among the French
refugees and that the so-called " Society of French Refugees at
London” has no right of control over the Council.

This is necessary because, although the mass of the above-named
society are honest people, the committee at their head are ruffians,
so that a great part - and the most meritorious part of the refugees
— does not want to have anything to do with the "Society,” but to be
relieved directly by the Council. We, therefore, give a weekly sum
for distribution to the Society and distribute another sum directly.

It is the above-said ruffians who have spread the most atrocious
calumnies against the General Council without whose aid (and
many of its members have not only given their time, but paid out
of their own purse) the French refugees would have crevi de faim
[perished of hunger].

I come now to the question of McDonnell. 1
Before admitting him, the Council instituted a most searching
inquiry as to his integrity, he, like all other Irish politicians, being
much calumniated by his own countrymen.

The Council — after most incontrovertible evidence on his private
character -chose him because the mass of the Irish workmen in
England have more confidence in him than in any other person
He is a man quite above religious prejudices, and as to his general
views, it is absurd to say that he has any “bourgeois” predilections.
He is a proletarian, by the circumstances of his life and by his ideas.

If any accusation is to be brought forward against him, let it be
done in exact terms, and not by vague insinuation. My opinion is
that the Irishmen, removed for long periods by imprisonment, are
not competent judges. The best proof: their relations with the
Irishman, whose editor, Pigott, is a mere speculator, and whose
manager, Murphy, is a ruffian. That paper— despite the exertions o
the General Council for the Irish cause-has always intrigued against
us. McDonnell was constantly attacked in that paper by an Irishman
(O'Donnell) connected with Campbell (an officer of the London
police) and a habitual drunkard, who for a glass of gin will tell the
first constable all the secrets he may have to dispose of.

After the nomination of McDonnell, Murphy attacked and ca-

> The Irishmen in the Central Committee and in the Provisional Federal Council
had objected to the appointment of McDonnell as secretary for Ireland.

MARX AND ENGELS

lumniated the International (not only McDonnell) in the Irishman,
and, at the same time, secretly, asked us to nominate him secretary

for Ireland.

As to O’Donovan Rossa, I wonder that you quote him still as an
authority after what you have written me about him. If any man was
obliged/ personally, to the International and the French Com-
munards, it was he, 1 and you have seen what thanks we have
received at his hands.

Let the Irish members of the New York Committee not forget that,
to be useful to them, we want above all influence on the Irish in
England , and that for that purpose there exists, as far as we have
been able to ascertain, no better man than McDonnell.

Yours fraternally,

Karl Marx

Train 2 has never received credentials on the part of the Gen-
eral Council.

ENGELS TO CUNO

[London] January 24, 1872

Dear Cuno:

. . . Bakunin, who up to 1868 had intrigued against the Inter-
national, joined it after he had suffered a fiasco at the Berne Peace
Congress 3 and at once began to conspire within it against the
General Council. Bfakunin] has a singular theory, a potpourri of
Proudhonism and communism, the chief point of which is, first of
all, that he does not regard capital, and hence the class antagonism
between capitalists and wage earners which has arisen through social
development, as the main evil to be abolished, but instead the state.
While the great mass of the Social-Democratic workers hold our
view that state power is nothing more than the organization with

*The imprisoned Fenians, and O’Donovan Rossa, in particular, had been
atrociously mistreated in the English prisons, and the General Council (that is,
Marx) had publicized this in English and French newspapers, whereupon the
British Government pardoned the Fenians on condition that they emigrate.

2 George Francis Train had pretended to be an Internationalist in Chicago.

a In 1867, at the congress of the League of Peace and Freedom, a bourgeois
organization, Bakunin was elected a member of its executive committee. At the
second congress of the League, which took place in Berne in 1868, Bakunin and
his colleagues advanced certain anarchist proposals, which were rejected by the
congress. As a result, Bakunin and his supporters seceded from the League and
established the Alliance of Socialist Democracy'.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

which the ruling classes - landowners and capitalists - have pro-
vided themselves in order to protect their social privileges Bakunin
maintains that the state has created capital, that the capitalist has is
capital only by the grace of the state. And since the state is the due
evil, the state above all must be abolished; then capital will go to
hell of itself. We, on the contrary, say: Abolish capital, the a PP
priation of all the means of production in the hands of the few,

^The'difference 1 i^ an^essendal one: the abolition of the : state is
nonsense without a previous social revolution; the abolition of
capital is the social revolution and involves a change in the whole
mod^Vf production. However, since for Bakunin .he stafe ,s he
main evil, nothing mus. be done that can keep
anv state, republic, monarchy, or whatever it may be. Hence, co
blete abstention from all politics. To commit a political action, espe-
Sv to take part in an election, would be a betrayal of principle
?he*U to d P o is to conduct propaganda, revile the ^ate organize
and when all the workers are won over, that is, the majon y^ p
the authorities, abolish the state, and replace it by the organizatio
0 h f the International. This great act, with which the millemum begi ,

" radical and is so simple .ha. i. can be

learned by hear, in five minutes, and .ha. is why .hi, Bakun, n,s.
theorv has 7 also rapidly found favor in Italy and Spam, among youn 0
tZll ^doctors a P nd "other doctrinaires. But the mass of the worke s
wm never allow themselves to be persuaded that the public affair,
of their country are not also their own affairs, the} a ,
political and whoever tries to convince them that t they -shot: Ml
oolitics alone will in the end be left in the lurch. To preach that me
workers should abstain from politics under an arcumsmnces mea
to drive them into the arms of the priests or the bour 0 eois

republicans. unkuninl the International is not supposed

replace the old social organization when social q B k ninist
it follows that it must come as near as poi Z

ideal of future society. In this ^bs^lJtely^vil. (How these people
authority, for authority _ state _ a y without

propose .0 operate a factor,, run a radroad, or steer « mpw

one* will that decide, in tl.e las. resort, w,, ho u.
they do no. indeed tell us.) The au.hor.ty of ^.he omapruy^rm^

minority ala, ceases. Every indivtdua , e.ety , unless each

mous, but how a society of even two people .s poss.ble unless

MARX AND ENGELS

gives up some of his autonomy, Bakunin again keeps to himself.

Well, the International must be organized according to this
pattern as well. Every section is autonomous, and in every section
every individual. To hell with the Basel resolutions , which conferred
upon the General Council a pernicious authority demoralizing even
to itself! Even if this authority is voluntarily conferred, it must
cease just because it is authority.

Here you have in brief the main points of the swindle. But who
were the authors of the Basel resolutions? The same Mr. Bakunin
and Co.!

When these gentlemen saw that at the Basel Congress they would
be unable to realize their plan for transferring the General Council
to Geneva, i.e., getting it in their hands, they adopted another
course. They founded the Alliance of Socialist Democracy, an
international society within the large International under the
pretext that you now encounter in the Bakuninist Italian press,
in the Proletario and the Gazzettino Rosa , for example: the ardent
Latin races require a more striking program than the chilly,
deliberate Northerners. This little plan failed owing to the resist-
ance of the General Council, which naturally could not tolerate
the existence of any separate international organization within the
International. Since then, the same plan has appeared in various
forms in connection with the efforts of Bakunin and his adherents
to substitute Bakunin's program for the program of the Inter-
national. On the other hand, reaction— beginning with Jules Favre
and Bismarck and ending with Mazzini— has always come down
hard upon the empty and vainglorious Bakuninist phrasemongering
when it wanted to attack the International. Hence the necessity of
the declaration of December 5 against Mazzini and Bakunin, which
was likewise printed in the Gazz[ettino ] Rosa .

The core of the Bakunin conspiracy consists of a few score
Jurassians, who have scarcely two hundred workers behind them;
its vanguard in Italy consists of young lawyers, doctors, and jour-
nalists, who now come forward everywhere as the representatives of
the Italian workers, with a few of the same breed in Barcelona and
Madrid, and a few individuals elsewhere— in Lyon and Brussels.
There are almost no workers among them; they have only one
worker here, Robin. The conference (convened out of necessity,
because of their inability to convoke a congress) served as a pretext;
and since most of the French refugees in Switzerland went over to
their side— they (the Proudhonists) had much in common with
them, while personal motives also played a part— they were the
ones to start the campaign. To be sure, a dissatisfied minority and

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 99

unrecognized geniuses are to be found everywhere within the Inter-
national— and they counted on them, not without reason.

At the present time their fighting forces are.

2 Bakunin himself-the Napoleon of thts campaign.

2 Two hundred Jurassians and 40-50 members of the Irene

Tin .he li**, who does no, support

THt™'u,e h °"emnan.s of the French Section of .8,., never
recognized by us. which has already split into three
Zl then about twenty Lassalleans of the type of Herr von

particularly in Barcelona. But, on the the

attach great importance to organization, anc expect

others is obvious to them. How much success Bakunin may « : F

here will be revealed only at the Spanish fe ar ’ s a bout it.

workers will predominate at thiscongresslhaveno *

6. Lastly, in Italy, as far as I know, the Turin Bolog

Girgenti sections have voted have

The Bakuninist press asserts that twenty event>

affiliated with them; I have ^’5° friends and adherents

the leadership is in the hands of Bak hubbub. But it

almost everywhere, and they are raising a £ following,

will most likely be found that they ^ven ‘ mu* of a folio

since a more exhaustive investigation Italian workers are

in the last analysis the overwhelming mass of is

still Mazzinists and will remain so as long as the Inter
identified there with abstention from po 1 ics. jjakuninists are
A. an, rate, the situation in Italy f .he lmernational.

for the present the masters of the situatio about t his; the

Nor does the General Council thin o co .*^5 as they please, and

Italians have the right to make as many peaceable debates,

the General Council will oppose this on^y m peaceac ^ &

They likewise have the right to extreme ly peculiar, to
congress in the Jurassian spirit, a g international] and

be sure, that sections that have jus J l e( jiately take a

can have no knowledge of r t without even hearing both

definite stand on a question ot this s

lOO

MARX AND ENGELS

sides! I have already given the Turinese ray opinion of this quite
frankly, and I shall do the same with other sections taking a similar
stand. For every such statement of affiliation represents an indirect
approval of the false slanders and charges against the General
Council contained in the circular 1 ; the General Council, however,
will soon issue its own circular on this question. If you can prevent
a similar declaration by the Milanese until this latter appears , you
will be acting in accordance with our desires. . . .

And the General Council, of course, will not call an extraordinary
congress for the benefit of a few intriguing and vainglorious indi-
viduals. As long as these' individuals stay within legal bounds, the
General Council will gladly allow them freedom of action, and this
coalition of quite heterogeneous elements will soon fall apart itself.
But as soon as they undertake anything contrary to the statutes or
the resolutions of the congress, the General Council will do its duty.

If one bears in mind at what a time these people began their
conspiracy— precisely when the International is everywhere subjected
to the fiercest persecution— it is impossible not to think that the
gentlemen of the international police are involved in this affair.
And this is actually the case. In Beziers the Geneva Bakuninists
have as their correspondent the Chief Commissioner of Policel
Two prominent Bakuninists, Albert Richard of London and
Leblanc, were here and told a worker, Scholl of Lyon, with whom
they had gotten in touch, that the only way to overthrow Thiers
was to put Bonaparte back on the throne, and that was why they
were traveling about at Bonaparte's expense to carry on propaganda
among the emigres on behalf of a Bonapartist restoration ! That is
what these gentlemen call absention from politics! In Berlin the
Neuer Sozial-Demokrat, subsidized by Bismarck, is singing the same
tune. I shall leave as a moot point the extent to which the Russian
police is involved in this affair, though Bakunin was deeply em-
broiled in the Nechayev affair (he denies this, to be sure, but we
have authentic Russian reports here, and since Marx and I under-
stand Russian, he cannot bluff us). Nechayev was either a Russian
agent-provocateur or, at any rate, acted like one; moreover, there
are all sorts of suspicious characters among Bakunin's Russian
friends. . . .

I again ask you to be discreet with all persons closely connected
with Bakunin. All sects are characterized by the fact that they
stick together closely and carry on intrigues. All of your confidences
—you may rest assured of this— will be conveyed to Bakunin at once.
One of his principles is the affirmation that keeping a promise and

1 Issued by the Jura Federation, controlled by Bakunin.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

101

thpr similar things are nothing but bourgeois prejudices, which a
other simi b should always disregard in the interests of the

“TSt* Ot open! 8 ,, bu, in Western Europe

is a secret doctrine. . . . Yours,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO CUNO London, April 22[-2 3 ], 1872

you were being deported ‘ d in a M u an newspaper.

A police statement to that effect appe exploit of the

This affair is not without significance. It Austria, and

international police conspiracy organized y the" police via the

Italy, and if you ha ^ n> ' ^^^^ you owe this solely to the
Bavarian frontier to Duesseldo > ,y , report the

stupidity of the Bavarians, omoirow ® w hole story will

matter to the General Council, afte \ 7 r ^ ill be printed in the
be included in the official repoit, ™ . the world. In the

Eosfern Post and sent out to .^^ZZryourZn name and
meantime, write an article a ,. , d tbe Gazzlettino]

send it to the Volksstaat. , well

Rosa. We shall take care of England, A ’ rea lize that

as of France, over here. 1 he rasca s T , d J international’s arms

,hey cannot doth, with ngm * “ the is

^TsMseXu . copy, together with a,, the newspapers 1
L collect lor you-the, won't be : too ^numerous. ^

The advice Liebknecht gave Y° instead of assisting

good, but for altogether different reasoi . , happened and

you to obtain redress, Bismarck you .instead of

will merely be irritated that the a 1 t unity for the police

realizing that this gave 1 j 6 ™ ^^nalion^all over Germany. But
to transport a member of the I be aWe to send his

you should write B[ismarck] simp y use> 0 £ C ourse-to Bebel,

reply— which will be nothing u a ’ But it is out Q f the

who will use it to raise a row in the Keic g

102

MARX AND ENGELS

question, of course, that Bismarck will even lift a finger to rebuke
Italy for having fulfilled his orders so well.

You must not be surprised that you have gotten so little support
from the party comrades. From one of your previous letters I had
already realized that you were under youthful illusions concerning
the aid you would receive when in need. Unfortunately, my answer
to this letter was confiscated by the Mardocheans [the police] and
never reached you. I should add that, although our German workers
have outstripped all the others as far as theory goes, in practice they
are far from having shaken off their “Knoten” [handicraft] past, and
thanks to the predominantly petty-bourgeois character of life in
Germany, they are tremendously narrow-minded, especially in money
matters.

That is why I wasn't at all surprised at what you experienced in
this respect. If I had money, I should send you some, but we here
are quite pinched for funds. We have more than a hundred help-
less emigres of the Paris Commune, literally helpless , for no people
ever feel as helpless abroad as do the French; and what they didn't
eat up, we sent to a fine chap in Cork, Ireland, who founded the
International there and was rewarded by being excommunicated
by the priests and the bourgeoisie and ultimately ruined. We
haven't a cent left. If we get some money from somewhere or other,
I shall see to it that you are not forgotten. . . .

The circular of the General Council on Bakunin and Co. is in
the press and will probably be ready by the end of next week. 1 I
shall send you a copy. It sets forth everything quite bluntly, and
it will produce a terrific row. I intend to send you newspapers
tomorrow— Gazzett [in o] Rosa and some other Italian items, in
general, anything I can lay my hands upon.

A congress of the Spanish members of the International was held
in Saragossa on April 8-11, at which our people won a victory over
the Bakuninists. It is now discovered that the Alliance de la
Democrati Socialiste 2 continued to exist in Spain within the Inter-
national as a secret society under the leadership of Bakunin— a
secret society aimed, not at the government, but against the masses
of workers! I have every reason to suspect that the same thing is
going on in Italy. What information do you have on this subject?

If anything comes of the job in Spain that Becker had in mind
for you, let me know at once so that I can give you letters of
introduction to our people. That job is probably in Catalonia,

l Les Prttendues Scissions dans l’ Internationale [The Alleged Splits in the
International ], Geneva, 1872.

* See footnote, p. 86.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

103

Barcelona La Brecon) and rhe

kev jobs in the hands of the Bakuninists.

There is only one newspaper appearing in Turin by now
™ e . icristo Something on the order of a weekly Gazzettino Rosa^
Then there are La Plebe in Lodi, II Fascia Operaio in Bologna, and
VF^aelianza in Girgenti-all the other Italian newspapers are
dead Our experiences in other countries made it obvious to me
W Jod£ *£ would have to happen. It is not enough to have
!TwSr»ns at the top; .he masses in Laly are still coo backward

more —a, content

than the Bakuninists possess, is required to free the masses rom

m Wn^me ve^ooT-^pSTyTn what you are able to do in your
special profession, so that I can take the ^

F. E.

ENGELS TO CUNO ^don, May ^ [l8)7 „

De L ifveTy good cha. you are wri.ing B[ismarck] about your caae-

Uib shouM be done 11 Inly .o force him to “u
thus afford Bebel an occasion for a Reichstag speech, y y

S5SS s’-" s

received the newspapers sent you on April -4 -7 P w hich

on the arson plot,* but this is
I am sending you tomorrow, as is usually

write these things myself. ... . „ . • _ fl .n v established

The secret society of the Bakummsts tn Span * a ‘“J ^

fact; you will find the details in , the i i tpor ( wi |l pro bably

Saragossa Congress in the Brussels Ub . » 1 B bM( o[

find in the Volksstaat one of these days. Luckily e g o[

the people attending the

S^mLTaXs"heT»terests oi the International were dearer to
■The ,« mp . ,« «. «.e to the. MIL" A g ,icul.n,.l «».■ "hid. was »•

puted to members of the International.

MARX AND ENGELS

104

them than everything else, they immediately shifted their stand and
remained in the secret society solely in order to check on it and to
paralyze its activity. One of them was here as a delegate to the con-
ference and convinced himself that everything they had told him
down there about die intrigues, dictatorship, etc., of the General
Council was empty twaddle. A short time later one of our best men
[Paul Lafargue]— half Frenchman, half Spaniard— left for Madrid,
and tliis settled the matter. The Spaniards have an excellent or-
ganization, of which they are rightfully proud, and, as it happens,
it has shown itself in the best light during the past six months. . . .

I did not doubt for an instant that the same secret society existed
in Italy, diough, perhaps, not as rigidly as in formalistic Spain.
The best proof of this for me was the almost military precision with
which the very same slogan, issued from above, was simultaneously
proclaimed in every corner of the country (note that these are the
very same persons who always preached the principle “dal basso
all’alto” [from the bottom to the top] to the people, and to the
International! It is quite understandable that you were not initiated,
for even among the Bakuninists only the leaders were admitted
to this esoteric society. Meanwhile, some individual symptoms of
improvement can be observed in Italy. . . . The damned difficulty in
Italy is simply getting into direct contact with the workers. These
damned Bak[uninist] doctrinaire lawyers, doctors, and the like pene-
trate everywhere and behave as if they were the hereditary repre-
sentatives of the workers. Wherever we have been able to break
through this line of skirmishers and get in touch with the masses
themselves, everything is all right and soon mended, but it is almost
impossible to do this anywhere without addresses. That is why it
would have been of great value for you to have remained in Mfilan]
and to have been able to visit various cities from time to time— if
not now, then at any rate later on. With one or two able comrades
at the key points we should have managed to deal with all this
rabble in half a year or so.

As for the Spanish police, all I can tell you is that apparently they
are frightfully stupid and that there is no unity among them. For
instance, one of our best men in Madrid [Paul Lafargue] was
ordered to be deported by the Minister of the Interior, but the
governor of Madrid would have nothing to do with it, and he re-
mained there undisturbed. . . .

Sincerely yours,

F. E.

May 8, evening. As I had to go into town to get the enclosed

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

IO5 1

fiftv-franc banknote (dated October 11, 1871, No. 2,648,626, in the
upper left corner-626, in the upper right corner-Z.io6), and it was
too late to send this letter off by registered mail, which had to be
clone because of the money, I still have time to tell you the story
about Becker, which is another instance of what petty intrigues go to
make up world history. For a long time old man Becker has retained
his own ideas of organization, dating from the epoch before ’48: little
aroups, whose leaders kept in touch in order to give the whole or-
ganization a general trend, a little conspiratorial activity on occa-
sion, and the like; another idea, likewise dating from that period,
was that the central organ of the German organization had to be
located outside Germany. When the International was founded, and
Becker took over the organization of the Germans in Switzerland
and other countries, he established a section in Geneva, which was
gradually converted into the “Mother Section of the Groups of Ger-
man-Language Sections” by organizing new sections in Switzerland,
Germany, and elsewhere. It then began to claim the top leadership,
not only of the Germans living in Switzerland, America, I ranee, etc.,
but also of the Germans in Germany and Austria. 1 his was all
the old method of revolutionary agitation employed up to 48,
and as long as it was based upon the voluntary subordination
of the sections, there could be no objection to it. But there was one
thing the good soul Becker forgot; that the organization of the
International was too big for such methods and goals. Becker anc
his friends, however, accomplished something and always remained
direct and avowed sections of the International.

In the meantime the labor movement in Germany was growing,
freeing itself from the fetters of Lassalleanism, and, under the leader-
ship of Bebel and Liebknecht, it came out in principle for the Inter-
national. The movement became too powerful and acquired too
much independent significance for it to be able to ac'now e ge
the leadership of the Geneva Mother Section; the erman wor ers
held their own congresses and elected their own executive organs.
The relationship of the German workers party to the nternationa
never was made clear, however. This relationship remained a purely
platonic one; there was no actual membership or me n R lia (
some exceptions), while the formation of sections was or
law. As a result, the following situation developed in Germany
They claimed the rights of membership, while they brushed aside
its obligations, and only after the London Con eience *
that henceforth they would have to comply with their obligations
Now you will understand why there not only had to arise a
certain rivalry between the leaders in Germany on t le one

io6

MARX AND ENGELS

and the Geneva Mother Section on the other, but that individual
conflicts also became unavoidable, especially over the question of the
payment of dues. The extent to which the General Council was
dictatorial in this affair, as in every other, you can see from the fact
that it was completely uninterested in the matter and left both
sides to shift for themselves. Each was right in some respects and
wrong in others. From the very start Becker attached great im-
portance to the International, but wanted to cast it in the long-
obsolete mold. Liebknecht and the others were in the right in so
far as the German workers wanted to rule themselves, and not
be controlled by an obscure council in Geneva; but in the last
analysis they wanted to subordinate the International to their own,
specifically German, aims and to make it serve them. The General
Council could intervene solely at the request of both sides or in
the event of a serious conflict.

Liebknecht evidently took you to be a Becker agent, traveling on
behalf of the Geneva Mother Section, and this explains all the
mistrust with which it seems he received you. He is also a man of
’48 and attaches more importance to such trifles than they deserve.
You may be glad that you did not live through this period— I have
in mind not the first revolutionary wave from February to the July
batdes (that was splendid), but the democratic bourgeois intrigues,
beginning with June '48, and the ensuing emigration of ’49-51. At
the present time the movement is infinitely greater.

This, I trust, will explain the reception you got in Leipzig. No
special importance should be attached to such trifles— they are all
things that are overcome by themselves in time. When you meet
the Belgian members of the International, you will, perhaps, again
be disappointed. Above all, don’t entertain too great illusions about
these people. They are very good elements, but the cause has, by
and large, run along in a worn-out rut, and a phrase is more im-
portant to them than the thing itself. The big words autonomy
and authoritarianism can attract a large audience in Belgium as well.
Eh bien, vous verrez pour vous-meme [well, you will see for yourself].

At your friendly service.

F. E.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

ENGELS TO CUNO

London, June 10, 1872

Dear Cuno:

, We now possess accurate information on the Spanish secret
society, La Aleanza- it will be quite a surprise to that gang at the
congress. The same society doubtless exists in Italy. If only Regis
could get down therel But the poor chap is now selling newspapers
in Geneva, to earn a living as best he can. Cafiero in Naples and
someone else in Turin whom I don’t know [Carlo Terzaghi] turned
letters of mine over to the Jurassians; that doesn’t matter to me,
but the very fact of their perfidy is unpleasant. The Italians will still
have to pass through a school of experience for them to realize that
a peasant people as backward as they are merely makes itself ridicu-
lous when it tries to prescribe to the workers of big industrial
countries the road they should take for their emancipation. . . .

We know that affairs are in pretty bad shape in Belgium. The
apathy of this neutral nation ( sit venia verbo [if that word can be
used]) is the underlying reason for the fact that the plotters and
jackasses can call the tune there. The International is declining
in Belgium with every day, thanks to the inertia of the intelligent
and reliable men among their leaders. Moreover, the clique’s
leaders have done us a tremendous service with their new draft
statutes. The proposal for the abolition of the General Council has
put an end to the last vestiges of their influence (which was far
from small, since this was one of the oldest federations). The
Spaniards call this downright treason. It’s a pity that you re not
going to Spain; you would like these people— in the last analysis
they are the most gifted of all the Latins, and you could have been
very useful there. These people require a certain dose of German
theory, and they take it very well; besides, they are distinguished
by a fanaticism and a class hatred of the bourgeoisie such as we
Northerners or the vacillating Italians cannot imagine. . . .

Your recent description of the impression Duesseldorf made upon
you made me laugh heartily. Why, for us, the philistme Wup-
pertalers, Duesseldorf was always a little Paris, where the pious
gentlemen of Barmen and Elberfeld kept their mistresses, went to
the theatre, and had a royal good time. But the sky always loo s
gray where one’s own reactionary family lives. Moreover, the process
of industrial development, which has spread to Duesseldorf as well,
is extremely depressing and deadly boring throughout Germany,
so that 1 can well imagine that the Wuppertal’s dreariness and
wretchedness have now conquered Duesseldorf as well. ^

But one fine day we shall send them packing, and then we 11 sing

MARX AND ENGELS

108

the old song again that they used to sing thirty years ago in Milan:

Nun , nun, semper nun,

E se ciappem la cioppa
La pagaremo nun!

[We, we, always we,

And if we go out on a spree,

Who’ll have to pay for it? We!]

But the bourgeoisie will have to pay for the cioppa [spree].

Yours,

F. Engels

MARX TO SORGE

London, June 21, 1872

Dear Friend:

... As for my Capital, the first German installment of the second
edition of Vol. I will be published next week, as will the first French
installment in Paris. You will get copies of both consecutively from
me for you and some of your friends. Of the French edition (the
title page of which reads, by no means as a mere phrase, “ entierement
revisee par V auteur" [completely revised by the author], for I have
had the devil of a job with it), 10,000 copies have been printed and
8,000 already sold, before publication of the first installment.

In Russia, books, after printing is completed but before they are
released to the public, must be submitted to the censorship, which
must file suit in court if it does not want to pass them.

They write me as follows from Russia regarding the Russian
translation of my book (which is a masterly job): “In the censorship
office two censors went over the work and laid their conclusions
before the censorship committee. Even before the examination it
was decided in principle not to hold this book up merely because of
the author’s name, but to make a close investigation of how far it
really corresponds to its title. The following is a summary of the
conclusion that was unanimously adopted by the censorship com-
mittee and submitted to the Central Administration for decision:

“ ‘Although the author, according to his convictions, is a thorough-
going socialist and the whole book has a quite definite socialist
character, nevertheless, in view of the fact that the presentation can
by no means be called accessible to everyone and that, on the other
hand, it possesses the form of a rigidly mathematical scientific
demonstration, the Committee declares the prosecution of this book

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

109

in court to be impossible.’ Accordingly it was allowed out into the
world Three thousand copies have been printed. It was made avail-
able to the Russian public on March 27th, and 1000 copies had
already been sold by May 15th.

In his announcement of my book the primeval know-nothing
lout Heinzen made merry of the statement on the title-page: Trans-
lation rights reserved.” Who would want to translate such non-
sense! The book was obviously written merely in order that Karl

Heinzen shouldn’t understand it.

We have issued a French translation of the Address on the Civil
War [in France ], price 2i/ 2 d. per copy. If wanted in the U.S., please

Regarding the Nicholson 1 affair, it is best not to say anything

about’ it in the General Council for the present.

Salut,

Your

K.M.

ENGELS TO CUNO London , July 5 , [iSfr.

Dea ‘ CU Ba°kunin 8c Co. will make every effort to beat us at Ae
congress, and as these gentlemen have no scruples about methods,
we must take precautionary measures. They are sen g 8
from hundreds of various societies, not belonging to the Inte
tional at all, and are trying to obtain a seat and a vote for
these persons as delegates of the International in * Pj
the General Council in the minority with the aid of a common of
the most heterogeneous elements. Schweitzer ant QVer

already concluded an avowed alliance wit r . tbe

here-Wsinier, Landeck, Smith, Schneider and
latter, in turn, are corresponding with t e J uiass yesterday)
icn rogues (see the that I sent you y * ^

The congress will be held in any even ;’ u f but

there is never any guarantee against po ict d and

then they will have to get aboard a steamer, go g ’ land

hold it there. It would be inexpedient to con , , . be sa £ e f rom
from the very start; though only in Eng an t d tQ attacbs

police interference. Nevertheless it would j

1 Nicholson, who was treasurer of the Provisional Federal Council, had put it m
an embarrassing position.

1 10

MARX AND ENGELS

by our enemies. The General Council, they would say, is convening
the congress in England because only there do they possess an arti-
ficial majority.

Bakunin has issued a furious, but very weak, abusive letter 1 in
reply to the Scissions . 2 That ponderous elephant is beside himself
with rage because he has finally been dragged from his Locarno lair
out into the light, where neither machinations nor intrigues are of
any more use. Now he declares that he is the victim of a conspiracy
of all the European — Jews!

The continued existence of the Alliance— at least in Spain— as a
secret society will break the old scoundrel's neck. Not only do we
have proofs of this, but it is now quite officially known in Madrid
and elsewhere, so that a denial is out of the question. This man of
honor, who everywhere acts as the most devoted champion of the
International, organized this secret conspiracy to seize over-all control
and, with the assistance of his initiated brother Jesuits, to lead the
broad masses of workers by the nose like a blind herd! If this
were tolerated, I wouldn't remain in the International for a day.
To be Bakunin's sheep— things haven’t reached that pass yeti The
hardest blow of all for him was our having uncovered this whole
story and our threatening to expose him at the congress. And now
Lafargue (Marx's son-in-law, who has been in Madrid for eight
months) is accusing him, B[akunin], of having drawn up and sent
to Spain the secret instructions on how the International was to be
controlled there. . . .

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO HEPNER

London, August 4, [i8]72

Dear Hepner:

I was about to write a brief article for you on the latest Bakunin-
ist stories, when it developed that the General Council would
have to make a statement on the matter itself. Thus the article has

1 An open letter by Bakunin and some of his adherents, published in the
Bulletin de la Fdditration Jurassienne of July 15, 1872. The letter was subsequent-
ly published as a pamphlet under the title La Reponse de quelques Interna-
tional a la circulaire privie de Conseil Gtniral [ The Reply of Some Members
of the International to the Secret Circular of the General Council].

*Les Prttendues Scissions dans Vlntemationale [The Alleged Splits in the
International], Geneva 1872, the General Council’s circular on the Bakuninist
conspiracy.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

111

turned into an address, the German translation of which you will
get by Wednesday.

The latest Spanish documents may well serve as a supplement.
Bakunin retained the Alliance de la Democratic Socialiste which
you know of from the Scissions, as a secret society in order to obtain
control of the International. But we learned of this, and now we
have the proofs. Thus, the charge will now be made publicly, as
otherwise the elections to the Congress would take place in Spain
under the management of the Alliance and would have resulted in

its victory. B[akunin] will break his neck in this affair

According to our information, the preparations [for war] are
being made on such a colossal scale that the Prussians can be
defeated only if they are opposed by Austria, in addition to France
and Russia. But Austria will be on Prussia’s side, unless some sudden
change occurs, which cannot be assumed under the existing cir-
cumstances. Moreover, we shall soon witness the odd spectacle of
Wilhelm [Kaiser Wilhelm I] issuing an appeal to the Poles and
re-establishing some sort of Poland. And with this he, and the
whole Prussian regime, will break their necks. The Prusso-German
Empire is far from having reached its culminating point; this war
(if it ends well, which is to be expected) will swiftly raise it to its
climax, and then it will come tumbling down from the dizzy heig ts
of Napoleonic glory. It is quite possible that this time the movement
will start in Berlin; the contradictions are growing more sharply
acute there, and all that is required to bring about an explosion is a
change in the political situation. A Berlin revolution of that kind
will certainly be pretty shabby, but still it is better for it to come
from within than after a Sedan, which never turns out well. . . •

Best regards.

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO HEPNER . lR „

London, December 30, 1872

. . . Of die two articles on the revival of the reform movement, the
first was good, while the second was straightway conti ary to
facts. The many miserable little congresses, whic 1 are en * „ . J

in this article only because they are taken serious y y t le ’

which has sold out to the bourgeoisie, have no ot lei pui pos

* See footnote, p. 86.

1 12

MARX AND ENGELS

as preparations for the impending parliamentary elections. All the
reform leagues listed in the article are of absolutely no importance
and consist, for the most part, of the very same people. And what
people? With a few exceptions, they consist of the labor leaders
whom Marx branded as corrupt at The Hague! It is impossible
to judge the movement here from over there, taking the Bee-Hive
and Reynold’s [Newspaper] as your guides. The fact that a few
trade unionists attend such congresses does not mean that the trade
unions are thinking of becoming political, which they (at least
most of them, and the biggest unions among them) couldn’t do at
all without totally revamping their by-laws. . . .

In fact, things are shockingly bad in the movement here— worse
than they ever were, as is to be expected with such industrial pros-
perity.

[F. E.]

MARX TO SORGE

London, August 4, 1874

Dear Sorge:

My long silence cannot be excused at all; cependant il y a des
circonstances attenuantes [however, there are extenuating circum-
stances], That damned liver complaint has made such headway that
I was positively unable to continue the revision of the French trans-
lation [Vol. I of Capital] (which actually amounts almost to com-
plete rewriting), and I am very unwillingly submitting to the
physicians* orders sending me off to Karlsbad.

They assure me that after I return I shall be fully able to work
again, and being unable to work is indeed a death sentence for any
man who is not a beast. The journey is expensive and so is the stay
there, and what is more, it is uncertain whether the foolish Austrian
government won’t expel me! The Prussians would scarcely be so
stupid, but they like to talk the Austrians into such compromising
measures; and I actually believe that the false newspaper reports
that Rochefort wants to go to Karlsbad, and so forth, stem from
Herr Stieber and are, in the last analysis, meant for me. I have
neither time nor money to lose and have therefore decided to apply
for British naturalization, but it is very likely that the British Home
Minister, who, like a sultan, decides on naturalization, will upset
my plans. The matter will probably be decided this week. In any
event, I am going to Karlsbad, if only because of my youngest
daughter [Eleanor] who was seriously, dangerously ill, is only now

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

113

able to travel again, and has also been told by her doctor to go to
Karlsbad

In England the International is as good as dead for the present.
The Federal Council in London exists as such only in name,
although some of its members are active individually. The great
event over here is the reawakening of the agricultural laborers. The
miscarriage of their initial efforts does no harm, au contraire [on
the contrary]. As for the urban workers, it is regrettable that the
whole gang of leaders did not get into Parliament. That is the
surest way of getting rid of the rascals.

In France workers* syndicates are being organized in the various
big cities and are in correspondence with one another. They confine
themselves to purely professional matters, nor can they do anything
else. Otherwise they would be suppressed without further ado.
Thus they keep some sort of organization, a point of departure for
the time when freer movement will again be possible.

By their own practical importance, Spain, Italy, and Belgium
demonstrate the intrinsic value of their super-socialism. In Austria
our people are working under the most difficult conditions; they
are compelled to move with the greatest caution. Nevertheless they
have made one great advance: they have prevailed upon the Slavic
workers in Prague and elsewhere to act together with the German
workers. During the final period of the General Council in London
I tried in vain to achieve an understanding of this sort.

In Germany Bismarck is working for us.

General European conditions are such as to drive more and more
toward a European war. We shall have to pass through it before any
decisive activity of the European working class can be thought of.

My wife and children send you their best regards.

Yours,

Karl Marx

In judging conditions in France, especially those in Paris, it
should not be forgotten that alongside the official military and politi-
cal authorities the gang of epauletted Bonapartist blackguar is
still secretly active, out of which the great republican Thiers formed
the military courts for slaughtering the Communal ds. icy consti
tute a sort of secret tribunal of terror; their mouchards [police spies]
are everywhere, making the Parisian workers districts, in particu ar,
unsafe.

ENGELS TO SORGE

MARX AND ENGELS

London, September 12 and 17, 1874

With your resignation the old International is entirely wound
up and at an end anyhow. And that is well. It belonged to the period
of the Second Empire, when the oppression throughout Europe
prescribed unity and abstention from all internal controversy for
the labor movement, then just reawakening. It was the moment
when the common, cosmopolitan interests of the proletariat could
come to the fore; Germany, Spain, Italy, and Denmark had only just
come into the movement or were just coming into it. In reality the
theoretical character of the movement in 1864 was still very unclear
throughout Europe, that is, among the masses. German communism
did not yet exist as a workers’ party, Proudhonism was too weak to
be able to insist on its particular fads, Bakunin’s new trash did not
yet exist even in his own head, and even the leaders of the English
trade unions thought they could enter the movement on the basis
of the program laid down in the Preamble to the Statutes. The
first great success was bound to explode this naive conjunction of all
fractions. This success was the Commune, which was beyond doubt
the child of the International intellectually, though the Inter-
national did not lift a finger to produce it, and for which the
International — to that extent with full justification — was held
responsible.

When, thanks to the Commune, the International became a moral
force in Europe, the row began at once. Each tendency wanted to
exploit the success for itself. The inevitable decomposition set in.
Jealousy of the growing power of the only people who were really
ready to continue working along the lines of the old comprehensive
program —the German Communists — drove the Belgian Proud-
honists into the arms of the Bakuninist adventurers. The Hague
Congress was actually the end — and for both parties. The only
country where something could still be accomplished in the name
of the International was America, and by a happy instinct the execu-
tive was transferred there. Now its prestige is exhausted there too,
and any further effort to galvanize it into new life would be folly
and a waste of energy. The International dominated ten years of
one side of European history — the side on which the future lies —
and can look back upon its work with pride. But in its old form it
has oudived itself. In order to produce a new International like the
old one — an alliance of all the proletarian parties of all countries
— a general suppression of the labor movement like that which pre-
vailed from 1849 to 1864 would be necessary. For this the proletarian

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

n 5

nr]A has now become too big, too extensive. I think the next
International - after Marx’s writings have been at work for some
years — will be directly Communist and will openly proclaim our

P Thl P !q«abbles in New York, which made it impossible for you to
remain hi the General Council any longer, are just as much proof as
consequence of the fact that the thing has outlived itself. When cir-
cumstances no longer allow a society to act effectively, when the
fim thing to be done is simply to keep the bond o union tied so
fliat it can be used again upon occasion, there are always people to
be found who cannot fit themselves into this situation, definite y
want to play the busybody, and demand that something be done
and this something can then only be folly. And if these people s
ceed in getting the majority, they compel everyone who does not
want to bear the responsibility for their absurdities to resign. What
good fortune that we did not send the minute books overt . . .

Best regards, Y ours,

F. Engels

MARX TO SORGE

Dear . This'crisis [.he Russo-Turkish War and Near Easterr .crisis] is
a new turning point in European history. Russia an
studied conditions there from the original Russian sources, ^uno -
Si and official (the latter accessible to but few persons but
obtained for me through friends in St. Pete^burgj as ong e
standing on the threshold of an upheaval; all the element i for n
menaced The gallant Turks have hastened the explosion by year,
throueh the blcfws they have dealt not merely to the Russian Army
(and Russian finances) but to the very £ JJ"* X

to the rules of the art], playing at

un beau tapage [and then there will be a ^u^Lee the fun!

Nature is not particularly hard on us, we sha y ^ is

The stupid nonsense the Russian students a p 1 . »

merely a symptom, worthless in itself. But it is a symptom A
SoL of Russian society are in full decomposition economically,

morally, and intellectually.

MARX AND ENGELS

This time the revolution begins in the East, hitherto the
unbroken bulwark and reserve army of counter-revolution.

Herr Bismarck was pleased to see the thrashing, but it wasn't
to go that far. Russia, too much weakened, could not hold Austria
in check again as it did in the Franco-Prussian War! And if it were
to go as far as revolution there, what would become of the ultimate
guarantee of the Hohenzollem dynasty?

For the present the most important thing is for the Poles (in the
Kingdom of Poland) to lie low. Only no risings there at this moment!
Bismarck would march in at once, and Russian chauvinism would
again side with the Tsar. If on the other hand the Poles wait quietly
until things are ablaze in Petersburg and Moscow, and Bismarck
then intervenes as a savior, Prussia will meet — its Mexico!

I have rammed this home again and again to any Poles I am in
contact with who can influence their fellow-countrymen.

Compared with the crisis in the East, the French crisis 1 is quite a
secondary event. Still it is to be hoped that the bourgeois republic
wins out or else the old game will begin all over again, and no
nation can repeat the same stupidities too often.

With the most cordial regards from my wife and myself,

Yours,

Karl Marx

MARX TO SORGE

[London] October 19, 1877

Dear Sorge:

... A rotten spirit is making itself felt in our party in Germany,
not so much among the masses as among the leaders (upper class
and “workers"). The compromise with the Lassalleans has led to
compromise with other halfway elements too; in Berlin (via Most)
with Diihring and his “admirers," but also with a whole gang of
half-mature students and super-wise doctors of philosophy who want
to give socialism a “higher, ideal" turn, that is to say, to replace its
materialist basis (which calls for serious, objective study by anyone
wanting to make use of it) by modem mythology with its goddesses
of Justice, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. Dr. Hochberg, who
publishes the Zukunft, is a representative of this tendency and has

1 In France the monarchist President of the Republic, MacMahon, attempted
in 1877 t0 prepare for a restoration of the monarchy and dissolved the Chamber
of Deputies. At the elections in October, however, the victory was gained by a
republican majority.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

"bought his way” into the party -with the “noblest” intentions,

I assume, but I do not give a damn for “intentions.” Anything more
miserable than his program of the Zukunft has seldom seen the
light of day with more “modest presumption.”

The workers themselves, when, like Herr Most and Co., they give
up work and become professional literary men, always breed “theo-
retical” mischief and are always ready to join muddleheads from
the allegedly "learned” caste. Utopian socialism especially, which
for tens of years we have been clearing out of the German workers’
heads with so much effort and labor - their freedom from it making
them theoretically (and therefore also practically) superior to the
French and English - utopian socialism, playing with fantastic
pictures of the future structure of society, is again spreading in a
much more futile form, not to be compared with the great French
and English Utopians, but with — Weitling. It is natural that
utopianism, which before the era of materialist-critical socialism
concealed the latter within itself in nuce [in a nutshell], coming now
post festum [after the event] can only be silly -silly, stale, and

fundamentally reactionary. . . . .

Of late the Vorwarts seems to be following the principle of accept-
ing manuscript, “copie" as the French call it, no matter where a
comes from. In one of the latest numbers, for example, first a fellow
who doesn’t know the economic ABC makes grotesque disclosures
regarding the “laws” of crises. He discloses nothing but his own
inner "crisis.” And then there is the impertinent youngster of Berlin,
who is allowed to print his unauthoritative thoughts on Englanc
and the shallowest Pan-Slavism nonsense in endless tapeworm
articles at the expense of the “sovereign people 1 Satis superqu
[enough and more than enough]! Yours

Karl Marx

Apropos. A few years ago (not many) a sort of Blue Book was
published (I don’t know whether official or not) on the condmom
of the miners in Pennsylvania, who hve, as we know, in
feudal dependence upon their moneylords (I think the *8
published after a bloody conflict 1 ). It is of tie gieates 11 P ’ „

for me to have this publication, and if you can get it £ °* ™ 1 sl
send you what it costs. If not, perhaps you can get me the t ,

I shall then ask Harney (in Boston).

'The Pennsylvania miners’ "long strike of 1875, broken by the use of troop

Il8 MARX AND ENGELS

MARX TO SORGE

London, September 19, 1879

Dear Friend:

... I did not receive the new edition of Weitling. 1 Of the American
periodicals I receive only the Paterson Labor Standard, which has
but very little in it. Thanks for your latest shipments of Pennsyl-
vania, Ohio, and Massachusetts Labor Bureau statistics, as well as
for Steward's speech. 2 I am much pleased that the chief of the Massa-
chusetts bureau will, as he writes me, from now on send me their
publications (including census) as soon as published.

As for Most and Co, we maintain a “passive" attitude towards
them, that is to say, we have no relationship with them, although
I see Most now and then at my house. Mr. Liibeck lies when he
sap that Engels and I have issued any “statement” against Most
or against the Freiheit . . . . Bernstein wrote Engels from Zurich
that Most wrote to Germany and Switzerland, saying we backed
him. Engels replied: If Bernstein submitted proofs of this, he would
issue a public statement against this untruth. But Bernstein (nephew
of the Berlin rabbi Rebenstein, of the Berlin Volkszeitung) had,
in fact, not a shred of proof to submit. Instead he whispered the
false secret to Liibeck, who immediately sold it to the U.S. with
the usual discretion of these penny-a-liners.

Our points of dispute with Most are by no means those of the
Zurich gentlemen of the trio, “Dr. Hochberg, Bernstein (his secre-
tary), and C. A. Schra mm ." We do not reproach Most for his
Freiheit being too revolutionary ; what we do hold against him is
that it has no revolutionary content, but merely deals in revolu-
tionary phrases. We reproach him not for criticizing the party
leaders in Germany , but first, for making a public scandal instead of
communicating his views to them in writing, i.e., by letter, as we do;
and, second, because he merely uses this as an excuse for making
himself important and putting the idiotic secret conspiratorial plans
of Messrs. Weber Jr. and Kaufmann into circulation. Long before
he arrived these fellows felt themselves destined to take the “general
labor movement" under their all-highest direction, and they con-
trived all sorts of endeavors in every quarter to realize this “charm-
ing" venture.

The worthy Johann Most, a man of the most childish vanity,
actually believes that world affairs have suffered a tremendous

1 The new edition of Wilhelm Weitling’s Garantien der Freiheit (Guarantees
of Freedom ), published by S. Landsberg in 1878.

Ira Steward, founder of the Eight-Hour League, had made a speech to workers
in Chicago on July 4, 1879.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

119

change because this same Most no longer lives in Germany, but
in London. The man is not without talent, but he kills his talent
by too much writing. In addition he is without esprit de suite [con-
sistency]. Every change of the wind blows him first in one direction
and then in another like a weathercock.

On the other hand, matters may indeed reach the point where
Engels and I would be compelled to issue a “public statement”
against the Leipzigers 1 and their Zurich allies. 1 his is the state of
affairs: Bebel wrote us that they wanted to found a party organ in
Zurich and he requested our names as collaborators. Hirschs name
was given us as the responsible editor. Thereupon we accepted, and
I at once wrote Hirsch (then in Paris, from which he has since been
banished, for the second time) to accept the editorial post, since he
alone affords us the certainty that a crew of doctors, students, and
the like, and professorial socialist rogues, such as strut in the Zukunft,
etc., and has already begun to penetrate the Vorwdrts, would be kept
out, and the party line would be adhered to strictly. But it turned
out that Hirsch had uncovered a hornets’ nest in Zurich. The five
men: Dr. Hochberg (who has bought his way into the party with
his money, an emotional driveler, the cousin of Sonnemann), ...
Bernstein, his secretary; C. A. Schramm, a philistine though meaning
well; Viereck, sent from Leipzig (also a philistine lout, the natural
son of the German Kaiser); and the businessman Singer of Berlin
(a petty-bourgeois paunch, paid me a visit some months ago)-these
five men constituted themselves — with the highest permission^ o
Leipzig — the constituent committee, and appointed the trio. * •
(Hochberg-Bernstein-C. A. Schramm) as the administrative com-
mittee, which was to supervise the editorial board and have im-
mediate jurisdiction. Bebel, Liebknecht, and a few otiers o e
German leaders stood above them as the final court of appea . irsc
demanded to know, first, from whom the money is W corae
Liebknecht had written: from the “party + Dr. Hochberg , Hirsch
stripped off the rhetorical flourish and reduced this quite correctly to
“Hochberg.” Second, Hirsch did not want to submit to die tnfolium
Hochberg-Bernstein-C.A. Schramm, in doing which he vvas all t le
more justified since Bernstein, answering a lettei in w 11c i e
asked for information, had bureaucratically ridden 1 oug is 10 over
him, rejected his Laterne - mirabile dictu [wonderful to relate] -as
ultra-revolutionary, etc. After a prolonged conespon ence, m ' v
Liebknecht did not play a shining part, Hirsch withdrew. Eng

'The Executive Committee of the German Social-Democratic l’arty, headed by

August Bebel, Wilhelm Liebknecht, and Wilhelm Bracke, had . P

during the life of Bismarck’s Anti-Socialist Law.

120

MARX AND ENGELS

wrote to Bebel that we are also withdrawing, as we had from the
very start refused to write for the Zukunft (Hochberg) and Netie
Gcsellschaft (Wiede). These fellows — zeros theoretically, incompe-
tent practically — want to take the teeth out of socialism (which
they have trimmed up according to university recipes) and out of the
Social-Democratic Party in particular, to enlighten the workers or,
as they put it, feed them “the elements of education” through their
confused half-knowledge, and, above all, to make the party respect-
able in the eyes of the philistine. They are poor counter-revolu-
tionary windbags.

Well, the weekly organ is now appearing (or is to appear) in
Zurich, under their supervision and the higher supervision of the
Leipzigers. (Vollmar editor.)

In the meantime, Hochberg came here to entice us. He found only
Engels, who made clear to him the deep gulf between us and him
by means of a critical review of the Jahrbuch issued by Hochberg
(under the pseudonym Dr. L. Richter ). (Take a look at the miser-
able product; the article signed with three # # # is [by] the trio
Hochberg-Bernstein-C.A. Schramm.) (But honest Johann Most also
figures in it with the groveling article on the book scribbler Schaffle.)
Nothing more blameworthy for the party has ever been printed.
What a good turn Bismarck did, not himself, but us, by making it
possible for these fellows to make themselves clearly heard as a result
of the enforced silence in Germany.

Hochberg was stunned when Engels told him the unvarnished
truth; he is a “peaceable” evolutionary and really expects prole-
tarian emancipation to come only from the “educated bourgeois,” i.e.,
people like himself. He declared Liebknecht had told him that we
all agreed au fond [at bottom]. All those in Germany — i.e., all the
leaders — shared his view, etc. Indeed, after making the great mis-
take in the transactions with the Lassalleans, Liebknecht has opened
the doors wide to all these barbarians, and thus paved the way
malgre lui [in spite of himself] for a demoralization in the party
which could be eliminated only by the Socialist Law.

Now if the “weekly” - the party organ - should actually proceed
along the lines initiated by Hochberg's Jahrbuch, we should be
compelled to take a public stand against such dissipation of the
party and its theory! Engels has drawn up a circular (letter) to Bebel,
etc . 1 (only for private circulation among the German party leaders,
of course), in which our standpoint is set forth without reserve. Thus

1 See Letter 170 in Marx-Engels, Selected Correspondence, International Pub-
lishers, 1935, pp. 362-80.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

121

. ontlrmen have been warned in advance, and they know us well
S toTnow that this means: yield or succumb! If they want to
compromise themselves, tant pis [so much the worse)! In no event
luhrv be allowed to compromise us. You can see how low parlia
W ‘ ,t L Ins already brought them from the fact that they are
S rHi-h with a great crime _ because o ( what. Because
£ has handled the scoundrel Kayser somewhat roughly in the
Laterne for the latter’s disgraceful speech on Bismarck s tariff
legislation. But, but now they say the party, i.e., the liandfu o
narliamcntary representatives of die party, had authorized Kayser to
Leak like that! All the more shame for this handful! But even that
if a miserable excuse. In fact they were foolish enough to let Kayser
Leak for himself and on behalf of his constituents; but he spoke
in the name of the party. However that may be, they are already so
far affected by parliamentary idiocy that they think they are above
criticism that they denounce criticism as a crime de lese majeste.

As for’the Communist Manifesto , nothing has been done about it
up to now because first Engels, and then I, had no time. But we
must get on with it at last. . . . ^ devQted

Karl Marx

MARX TO SWINTON 1 [Lm , don] ^ , 88o

“l have Sit you today a copy oE the French e«tion of the Ca,tmh
I have at the same time to thank you for your friendly article in the

Apart Mr. Gladstone’s sensational failures abroad — political
interest centers here at present on the Irish Lane ^ ue J.V? n ,, Land
why? Mainly because it is the harbinger of t e g

QU Not' only that the great landlords of England are also the largest
landholders of Ireland, but having once broken dcm * al

ironically called the “sister” island, * f^ai^ed against it the
no longer be tenable at home. There are a 0 ° ,

British farmers, wincing under high rents, and- thanks to the

American competition — low prices; the Bntis 1 agi icu . j

at last impatient of their traditional position of ill-used beasts of

1 This letter was written in English.

122

MARX AND ENGELS

burden, and - that British party which styles itself " Radical ” The
latter consists of two sets of men; first the ideologues of the party,
eager to overthrow the political power of the aristocracy by mining
its material basis, the semifeudal landed property. But behind these
principle-spouters, and hunting them on, looks another set of men
-sharp, closefisted, calculating capitalists, fully aware that the
abolition of the old land laws, in the way proposed by the ideologues,
cannot but convert land into a commercial article that must ulti-
mately concentrate in the hands of capital.

On the other side, considered as a natural entity, John Bull has
ugly misgivings lest the aristocratic English landed garrison in
Ireland once gone — England’s political sway over Ireland will go too!

Liebknecht has to enter prison for six months. The Anti-Socialists'
Law having failed to overthrow' or even to weaken the German
Social-Democratic organization, Bismarck clings the more desperately
to his panacea, and fancies that it must work, if only applied on a
larger scale. Hence he has extended the state of siege to Hamburg,
Altona, and three other Northern towns. Under these circumstances,
the German friends have written me a letter of which one passage
reads thus:

“The Socialist Law, though it could not break and never will
break our organization, does impose pecuniary sacrifices almost
impossible to bear. To support the families ruined by the police,
to keep alive the few papers left to us, to keep up the necessary com-
munications by secret messengers, to fight the battle on the whole
line — all this requires money. We are nearly exhausted and forced
to appeal to our friends and sympathizers in other countries.”

So far this extract.

Now we here at London, Paris, etc., will do our best. At the same
time, I believe that a man of your influence might organize a sub-
scription in the United States. Even if the monetary result were
not important, denunciations of Bismarck’s new coup d’dtat in
public meetings held by you, reported in the American press, repro-
duced on the other side of the Atlantic, would sorely hit the
Pomeranian hobereau [country squire] and be welcomed, by all the
socialists of Europe. More information you might get from Mr.
Sorge (Hoboken). Any money forthcoming to be sent over to Mr.
Otto Freytag, Landtagsabgeordneter, Amtmannshof, Leipzig, . His
address ought, of course, not be made public; otherwise the German
police would simply — confiscate .

Apropos. My youngest daughter [Eleanor]— who was not with us at
Ramsgate — just tells me that she has cut my portrait from the copy
of the Capital I sent you, on the pretext that it was a mere carica-

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

123

ture. Well, I shall make up for it by a photogram to be taken on the

Mane and the whole family send you their best wishes.

Yours most sincerely,

Karl Marx

MARX TO SORGE [London] November 5, 1880

Dear Sorge: r

You must attribute my long silence (i) to a very great pressure of

work, and (2) to the grave illness of my wife, which has already
lasted over a year.

You have seen the heights to which Johann Most has developed,
and on the other hand, how miserably the so-called party organ, the
Zurich Sozialdemokrat (not to mention the Jahrbuch there) has
been managed, duce [under the leadership of] Dr. Hochberg. Engels
and I have been engaged in constant correspondence with the
Leipzigers 1 in this connection, with sharp clashes occurring often.
But we have avoided intervening publicly in any way. It is not
fitting for those who sit quietly, comparativement parlant [compara-
tively speaking], abroad to make the position of those working within
the country under the hardest conditions and with the greatest per-
sonal sacrifices more difficult, to the delight of the bourgeois anc t e
government. Liebknecht was here a few weeks ago, an improve
ment” has been promised in every respect. The party organization
has been renewed, which could be done only in a secret manner, i.e.,
so far as “secret” means a secret to the police. , .

It is only recently that I fully discovered Most’s blackguardism
in a Russian socialist paper. He never dared to pnnt in German
what can be read here in the Russian vernacular. This a no longer
an attack upon individual persons, but the dragging o e
German labor movement through the mud. At tie sa ™ e , inl j
grotesquely shows his absolute lack of understanding of ‘

trine he formerly peddled. It is a babbling, so si y, so 1 °8 ’

degenerate, that it finally dissolves into nothing, viz., Jo an
boundless personal vanity. As he was unable to accomp is
thing in Germany in spite of all his ranting, except amon„
tain Berlin mob, he ha, allied him, ell with rhe younger g ene ration

ol Bakuninist, in Paris, the group that publishes the Rtt

*See footnote, p. 119.

MARX AND ENGELS

124

sociale (whose cirde of readers = exactly 210, but which possesses
Pyat’s Commune as its ally. The cowardly, melodramatic farceur
[comedian] Pyat — in whose Commune I figure as Bismarck’s right
hand — has a grudge against me because I have always treated him
with absolute contempt and thwarted all his attempts to use the
International for his sensational tricks.) In any event Most has
performed the good service of having brought all the ranters —
Andreas Scheu, Hasselmann, etc., etc. - together as a group.

As a result of Bismarck’s new state-of-siege decrees and the perse-
cution of our party organs, it is absolutely necessary to raise money
for the party. I have therefore written to John Swinton (for a well-
meaning bourgeois is best suited for this purpose), and told him to
apply to you for detailed information regarding German conditions.

Aside from the trifles mentioned on the previous page — and how
many of these have we seen burst and vanish again without a trace
during our long years of exile — things are going along splendidly
on the whole (I mean by this the general developments in Europe),
as well as within the circles of the really revolutionary party on the
Continent.

You have probably noticed that the Egalite, in particular (thanks
en premiere instance [principally] to Guesde’s coming over to us and
to the work of my son-in-law Lafargue), has for the first time offered
us a French "workers’ paper > ’ in the wider sense. Malon, too, in the
Revue Socialiste, has had to espouse socialisme moderne scientifique,
i.e., German socialism, even though with the inconsistencies insep-
arable from his eclectic nature (we were enemies, as he was originally
one of the co-founders of the Alliance 1 ). I wrote the “ Questionneur *'
for him, which was first printed in the Revue Socialiste and a reprint
of which was then distributed throughout France in a very large
edition. Shortly afterward Guesde came to London to draw up a
workers’ election program, together with us (myself, Engels, La-
fargue), for the coming general elections. With the exception of some
trivialities which Guesde found it necessary to throw to the French
workers, despite my protest, such as fixing the minimum wage by law,
and the like (I told him: “If the French proletariat is still so childish
as to require such bait, it is not worth while drawing up any program
whatever”), the economic section of the very brief document con-
sists solely of demands that have spontaneously arisen out of the
labor movement itself, except for the introductory passages where
the communist goal is defined in a few words. It was a tremendous

1 Alliance de la Dimocratie Socialiste, the international secret society estab-
lished within the First International by Bakunin to seize control of the Inter-
national for the anarchists. See pp. 86, 97, 102, 111.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

125

Step forward to pull the French workers down to earth from their
fog of phraseology, and hence it was a violent shock to all the French
giddyheads, who live by "fog-making.” After the most violent opposi-
tion by the anarchists, the program was first adopted in the Region
cen i ra le — i.e., Paris and its environs — and later in many other
workers’ centers. The simultaneous formation of opposed groups of
workers, which accepted, however, most of the “practical” demands
of the program, sauf les anarchistes [except the anarchists], who do
not consist of actual workers, but of diclassis with a few duped
workers as their rank-and-file soldiers, and the fact that very
divergent standpoints were expressed solely regarding other ques-
tions, prove to me that this is the first real labor movement in France.
Up to the present time only sects existed there, which naturally
received their mot d’ordre [slogan] from the founder of the sect,
whereas the mass of the proletariat followed the radical or pseudo-
radical bourgeois and fought for them on the day of decision, only
to be slaughtered, deported, etc., the very next day by the fellows
they had put into power.

The Emancipation that was put out in Lyons a few days ago
will be the organ of the Parti ouvrier [Workers Party] that has
sprung up on the basis of German socialism.

Meanwhile we also have had and have our champions in the
camp of the enemy itself — i.e., in the radical camp. T heisz has taken
up the labor problem in the Intransigeant, Rochefort’s organ; after
the defeat of the Commune he came to London a Proudhonist, like
all “thinking” French socialists, and there he changed completely -
through personal contact with me and concientious study of Capital.
On the other hand, my son-in-law [Charles Longuet] gave up his
professorship in Kings College, returned to Paris (his family^ is still
here fortunately), and became one of the most influential editors of
Justice, which belongs to Clemenceau, the leader of the extreme
Left. He has done such good work that Clemenceau, who came out
publicly as late as last April against socialism and as the advocate of
American-democratic-republican views, has swung over to us in his
latest speech in Marseilles, against Gambetta. This is true of both
its general tendency and its principal points, as contained in the
minimum program. Whether he will keep what he promises is
wholly immaterial. In any event he has introduced our element into
the Radical Party, whose organs, comically enough, consider wonder-
ful, now that it comes from the mouth of Clemenceau, what they
had ignored or ridiculed as long as it was merely issued as the
slogan of the Parti ouvrier.

I need hardly tell you — for you know French chauvinism that

126

MARX AND ENGELS

the secret threads by which the leaders, from Guesde-Malon to
Clemenceau, have been set in motion are entre nous [between us].
II n’en faut pas parler . Quand on veut agir pour Messieurs les
Francais, il faut le faire anonymement, pour tie pas choquer le
sentiment “national” [One must not talk about this. When one
wishes to influence Messrs, the French, one must do so anonymously
in order not to shock “national” feeling.] As it is, the anarchists
denounce our cooperators already as Prussian agents, under the
dictatorship of the “notorious” Prussian agent — Karl Marx.

In Russia, where Capital is more read and appreciated than any-
where else, our success is even greater. On the one hand, we have the
critics (mostly young university professors, some of them personal
friends of mine, as well as some writers for the reviews), and, on the
other, the terrorist central committee, whose program, secretly
printed and issued in Petersburg recently, has provoked great fury
among the anarchist Russians in Switzerland, who publish The
Black Redistribution 1 (this is the literal translation from the Rus-
sian) in Geneva. These persons — most (not all) of them people
who left Russia voluntarily — constitute the so-called party of propa-
ganda as opposed to the terrorists who risk their lives. (In order to
carry on propaganda in Russia — they move to Genexfa! What a
quid pro quo [exchange]!) These gentlemen are against all political-
revolutionary action. Russia is to leap into the anarchist-communist-
atheist millennium in one breakneck jump! In the meantime they
are preparing for this leap by a tiresome doctrinairism whose so-
called principes courent la rue depuis feu Bakounine [principles
have been commonplaces ever since the late Bakunin],

And now enough for this time. Let me hear from you soon. Best
regards from my wife.

Totus tuus [entirely yours],

Karl Marx

I should be very much pleased if you could find me something
good (meaty) on economic conditions in California, of course at my
expense. California is very important for me because nowhere else
has the upheaval most shamelessly caused by capitalist centraliza-
tion taken place with such speed.

1 Cherny Peredel, published for a few months in 1881 by a group headed by
Plekhanov, Zasulich, and Axelrod during the period of their transition from the
Narodnik (Populist) movement to Marxism.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

127

MARX TO SWINTON *

London N. W., June 2, 1881

Dear Mr. Swinton:

1 need hardly recommend you the bearer of these lines, my
excellent friend Mr. Hartmann. I send you through him a photo-
gram of mine; it is rather bad, but the only one left to me.

As to the book of Mr. Henry George, I consider it as a last
attempt — to save the capitalistic regime. Of course, this is not
the meaning of the author, but the older disciples of Ricardo - the
radical ones - fancied already that by the public appropriation of
the rent of land everything would be righted. I have referred to
this doctrine in the Misere de la Philosophic [The Poverty of Philos-
ophy] (published in 1847, against Proudhon).

Mrs. Marx sends you her best compliments. Unfortunately her
illness assumes more and more a fatal character.

Believe me, dear Sir,

Yours most sincerely,

Karl Marx

The “Viereck” [Louis Viereck] was so stultified at his arrival in
the U.S. that he confounded my friend Engels with myself, and
transformed my compliments to you in those of Engels; he did the
same with regard to another American friend of mine by whose
letter I was informed of the quid pro quo [exchange].

MARX TO SORGE

London, June 20, 188 1

Dear Sorge:

. . . Before I received your copy of Henry George - I had gotten
two others, one from Swinton and one from Willard Brown, I
therefore gave one to Engels and one to Laf argue. 1 oday I must
confine myself to a very brief formulation of my opinion of the
book. Theoretically the man is total arrikre [utterly backward]! He
understands nothing about the nature of surplus value, and so
wanders about in speculations that follow the English pattern, but
are even behind the English, about the portions of suiplus \alue
that have attained independent existence, i.e., the relationships of
profit, rent, interest, etc. His fundamental dogma is that everything
would be all right if land rent were paid to the state. (You will also

1 This letter was written in English.

8 Henry George, Progress and Poverty, 1879.

128

MARX AND ENGELS

find payment of this kind among the transition measures included
in the Communist Manifesto .) This idea originally belonged to the
bourgeois economists; it was first put forward (apart from a similar
demand at the end of the eighteenth century) by the earliest radical
disciples of Ricardo, just after his death. I said of it in 1847, in my
book against Proudhon: “Nous concevons que des 6conomistes tels
que Mill (der altere, nicht sein Sohn John Stuart, der dies auch
etwas modifiziert wiederholt), Cherbuliez, Hilditch et autres, ont
demands que la rente soit attribute k l’Etat pour servir k l’acquitte-
ment des impdts. Cest Ik la franche expression de la haine que le
capitaliste industriel voue au propridaire fonder, qui lui parait une
inutility, une superf£tation, dans Tensemble de la production bour-
geoise.” [“We understand such economists as Mill (the elder, not his
son John Stuart, who also repeats this in a somewhat modified form),
Cherbuliez, Hilditch, and others demanding that rent should be
handed over to the state to sene in place of taxes. That is a frank
expression of the hatred the industrial capitalist bears toward the
landed proprietor, who seems to him a useless thing, an excrescence
upon the general body of bourgeois production.”] 1

We ourselves, as I have already mentioned, adopted this appro-
priation of land rent by the state among numerous other transitional
measures, which, as is likewise stated in the Manifesto, are and must
be contradictory in themselves.

But the first person to turn this desideratum [requirement] of the
radical English bourgeois economists into the socialist panacea,
to declare this procedure to be the solution of the antagonisms
involved in the present mode of production, was Colins, an old
ex-officer of Napoleon’s Hussars, born in Belgium, who in the latter
days of Guizot and the early days of Napoleon the Little [Napoleon
III], favored the world with bulky volumes from Paris about this
“discovery” of his. Like the other discovery he made, that though
there is no God there is an “immortal” human soul, and that animals
have “no feelings.” For if they had feelings, that is souls, we should
be cannibals and a kingdom of righteousness could never be estab-
lished on earth. His “anti-landownership theory” together with his
theory of the soul, etc., has been preached every month for years in
the Paris Philosophie de V Avenir by his few remaining followers,
mostly Belgians. They call themselves “collectivistes rationels”
[rational collectivists], and have praised Henry George. After them
and besides them, among others, the Prussian banker and former

‘Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy, International Publishers, New York,
1956, p. 136.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

129

lottery collector Samter of East Prussia, a shallow-brained fellow,
lias eked out this “socialism” into a thick volume.

All these “socialists” since Colins have this much in common, that
they leave wage labor and hence capitalist production in existence
and try to bamboozle themselves or the world into believing that
through the transformation of land rent into a state tax all the
evils of capitalist production would vanish of themselves. The whole
thing is thus simply an attempt, trimmed with socialism, to save
capitalist rule and indeed to re-establish it on an even wider basis
than its present one.

This cloven hoof (at the same time ass’s hoof) also peeps out
unmistakably from the declamations of Henry George. It is the more
unpardonable in him because he on the contrary, ought to have
asked himself: How did it happen that in the United States, where,
relatively, that is, compared with civilized Europe, the land was
accessible to the great masses of the people and still is to a certain
degree (again relatively), capitalist economy and the corresponding
enslavement of the working class have developed more rapidly and
more shamelessly than in any other country!

On the other hand, George’s book, like the sensation it has made
among you, is significant because it is a first, though unsuccessful,
effort at emancipation from orthodox political economy.

H. George does not seem, moreover, to know anything about the
history of the early American anti-renters , 1 who were practical
men rather than theoretical. Otherwise he is a writer with talent
(with a talent for Yankee advertising too), as his article on Cali-
fornia in the Atlantic proves, for example. He also has the repulsive
presumption and arrogance that distinguish all such panacea-
mongers without exception. . . .

Salut fraternel ,

Yours.

K. Marx

1 The Anti-Rent Party, a movement of rebellious tenant farmers during
early 1840’s, grew out of the discontent with the survival of o d m^orial Und
rights in the “patroonships” along the Hudson River in New or .
farmers refused to pay rent for their land claimed by the heirs o t e 0 P*
and shot down the deputy sheriffs who came to enforce payment, rant et a
outlaws by Governor Wright of New York, they resorted to political action for
relief. The Anti-Renters controlled the votes of about ten counties an e t
balance of power for two years.

i3°

MARX TO SORGE

MARX AND ENGELS

[London] December 15, 1881

Dear Sorge:

. . . Your Henry Geoige is revealing himself as more and more
of a humbug. . . .

Yours,

K. Marx

The English have recently begun to occupy themselves more with
Capital, etc. Thus in the last October (or November, I am not quite
sure) number of the Contemporary there is an article by John Rae
on German socialism. (Very inadequate, full of mistakes, but “fair/’
as one of my English friends told me the day before yesterday.) And
why fair? Because 1 John Rae does not suppose that for the forty
years I am spreading my pernicious theories I was being instigated
by “bad” motives. “Seine Grossmut muss ich loben !” [I must praise
his magnanimity!] The fairness of making yourself at least suffi-
ciently acquainted with the subject of your criticism seems a thing
quite unknown to the penmen of British philistinism.

Before this, in the beginning of June, there was published by a
certain Hyndman a little book: England for All. It pretends to be
written as an expose of the program of the “Democratic Federation”
— a recently formed association of different English and Scotch
radical societies, half bourgeois, half proletaries [proletarians]. The
chapters on Labor and Capital are only literal extracts from or
circumlocutions of the Capital, but the fellow does neither quote
the book, nor its author, but to shield himself from exposure re-
marks at the end of his preface: “For the ideas and much of the
matter contained in Chapters II and III, I am indebted to the
work of a great thinker and original writer, etc., etc.” Vis-d-vis my-
self, the fellow wrote stupid letters of excuse, for instance, that “the
English don’t like to be taught by foreigners,” that “my name was
so much detested, etc.” With all that his little book - so far as it
pilfers the Capital— makes good propaganda, although the man
is a “weak” vessel, and very far from having even the patience — the
first condition of learning anything -of studying a matter thor-
oughly. All these amiable middle-class writers — if not specialists -
have an itching to make money or name or political capital immedi-
ately out of any new thoughts they may have got at by any favorable
windfall. Many evenings this fellow has pilfered from me, in order
to take me out and to learn in the easiest way.

1 From here on this letter was written in English.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 131

Lastly, there was published on the first December last (I shall
send you a copy of it) in the monthly review Modern Thought an
article: “Leaders of Modern Thought: No. XXIII - Karl Marx. By
Ernest Belfort Bax.”

Now that is the first English publication of that kind which is
pervaded by a real enthusiasm for the new ideas themselves and
boldly stands up against British philistinism. This does not pre-
vent that the biographical notices the author gives of me are mostly
wrong, etc. In the exposition of my economic principles and in his
translations (i.e., quotations of the Capital) much is wrong and con-
fused, but with all that the appearance of this article, announced
in large letters by placards on the walls of West End London, has
produced a great sensation. What was most important for me,
I received the said number of Modern Thought already on the
30th of November, so that my dear wife had the last days of her
life still cheered up. You know the passionate interest she took in
all such affairs.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, June 20, 1882

Dear Sorge: ,

Marx was in Algiers for about two months, where he suffered
a relapse of pleurisy, as I think I wrote you. After this was cured,
he went to Monte Carlo in Monaco and suffered another, but this
time a mild one. From there he went to Paris about three weeks
ago and is now with his daughter, Mrs. Longuet [Jenny Marx], in
Argenteuil near Paris, traveling to Enghien every day to take the
sulphur springs there for his chronic bronchial catarrh and cough.
His general health is very good; as for his further movements, they
depend entirely upon the doctors.

The English translation of the Manifesto [Communist Manifesto ]
sent us is quite unprintable without complete revision. But you
will understand that this is out of the question under the piesent

rirrnrrKtanrp*

The presumpuon of the Lassalleans after their arrival in
America was inevitable. People who carried the only true gospe
with them in their bag could not speak unpretentious) to 1 e
Americans, still languishing in spiritual darkness. What was at sta r e,
moreover, was finding a new footing in America to take t e p ace

132

MARX AND ENGELS

of the one that was disappearing more and more under their feet
in Germany. To make up for it we are happily rid of them in
Germany; in America, where everything proceeds ten times as fast,
they will soon be disposed of. . . .

In Germany things are going ahead excellently on the whole.
To be sure, Messrs. Literati of the party have tried to turn it toward
reactionary, tame-bourgeois education, but this failed utterly. The
infamies to which the Social-Democratic workers are everywhere
subjected have made them everywhere much more revolutionary
than they were even three years ago. You will have read the details
in the Sozialdemokrat . Of the leaders, Bebel is the one who has
behaved best in this affair too. Liebknecht wavered somewhat, since
not only does he welcome every halfway, so-called democratic,
“eddicated man” with open arms and without looking him over
carefully, but his son-in-law, the fat sleepyhead Bruno Geiser, is one
of the biggest whiners. These people would like to beg off the
Socialist Law at any price by mildness, meekness, toadying, and
tameness, because it makes short work of their literary earnings. As
soon as the law is abolished (even the bourgeois do not count upon
its prolongation by the present Reichstag or any other possible
Reichstag, because it has proved to be totally ineffective), the split
will probably become an open one, and the Vierecks, Hochbergs,
Geisers, Bios and Co. will form a separate Right wing, where we
can negotiate with them from case to case until they finally col-
lapse. We said this immediately after the passage of the Socialist
Law, when Hochberg and Schramm published in the Jahrbuch
what was under the circumstances a quite infamous estimate of the
party’s activity up to that time and demanded of the party more
“eddicated,” respectable, Sunday-best manners. . . .

Best regards,

Yours

F. Engels

Tell Adolph that Pumps [nickname of Mary Ellen Burns, Engels’
niece] has a little girl.

ENGELS TO HEPNER

London, July 25, 1882

Dear Mr. Hepner:

The delay in my reply was caused by Marx’s illness and his many
changes of residence. Only recently was I able to correspond with

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

133

him about business matters. Our opinion regarding your projected

undertaking 1 is as follows: ...

Since legally, you are wholly within your rights in reprinting
over there anything published in Europe, in our opinion it would
be best for you to make use of this right without further ado and
without asking anyone about it. If you wish to reprint the Com-
munist Manifesto, we cannot have the slightest objection to your so
doin^, and we would not think of protesting against it so long as no
chantres and omissions, which are inadmissible in a historical docu-
ment anyhow, or improper notes, compel us to do so. We cannot
write a preface if for no other reason than that we are not together,
and even more so because we should thus be establishing a certain
solidarity with an undertaking which we are neither in a position
nor desire to supervise and control. On this basis you are entire v
free to reprint whatever you please without our ever having occa-
sion to complain about the company in which our books appear.

The same applies to my Condition of the Working Class. If you
reprint it as it stands, I can have no objections. But should I give you
special permission to do so, I should also be obliged to make the
additions and notes that link the book with the present day, and
that would be a six months’ task. Moreover, I should then want to
have guarantees in advances that the undertaking, once begun,

would be carried out. ....

I hope that I have convinced you that it would be in your own
best interests to proceed entirely upon your own. Without being
compelled to do so we shall place no obstacle in the path of the

undertaking, rather the contrary.

As for a new abridgment of Capital, Marx has had so many
unpleasant experiences with that sort of thing that one cannot
approach him with such proposals any more, especially o _

(this confidentially!) Marx eliminated the worst mistakes ‘ **

second edition of Most’s abridgment and made a few additm ,
that this abridgment still has some advantages and could

There is not much else that I could recommend to ^ou for
reprinting. The Leipzig literature comprises chiefly socialism of
future and doctoral dissertations of parliamentary candidates. The

i Hepner had written Engels from New York r ^^Si,h meMa^esto

“workers’ library” in German, and requestedpernussio^ ^ | h He ^ asked

of the Communist Party with a new preface y • worth translating

Engels for suggestions regarding books by other writers that were worm

or republishing.

8 Marx was in Argenteuil near Paris. See p.

*34

MARX AND ENGELS

French writings of Jules Guesde are good in most cases, but they
are written too much with an eye to French conditions. 1 Bracked
Down With Socialism is perhaps not suited for use over there.
Bebel's parliamentary speeches are by far the best that Germany
has produced in our line, but they are, of course, occasional pieces —
Lassalle swarms with economic errors, and his whole viewpoint was
superseded long ago. Brackets Lassallean Proposal is quite good
criticism, but not exhaustive.

Well, you have to choose. Best wishes for your undertaking.

Yours,

Fr. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

LONDON MCH 14 1883

CABLE SORGE 135 BLOOMFIELD ST. HOBOKEN
NEW JERSEY

MARX DIED TODAY

ENGELS LONDON

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, March 15, 1883, 11: 45 P M -

Dear Sorge:

Your telegram arrived tonight. Heartfelt thanks!

It was not possible to keep you regularly informed about Marx’s
state of health because it was constantly changing. Here, briefly,
are the main facts:

Shortly before his wife's death he had an attack of pleurisy,
in October '81. After he recovered, he was sent to Algiers in Feb-
ruary 82, he encountered cold, wet weather on the journey and
arrived with another attack of pleurisy. The atrocious weather
continued, and when he got better, he was sent to Monte Carlo
(Monaco) to avoid the heat of the approaching summer. Again he
arrived with a milder attack of pleurisy. Again abominable weather.
Cured at last, he went to Argenteuil near Paris to stay with his
daughter, Mme. Longuet. He took the sulphur springs near by at

c, S firS l WnUngS were: 4/2 r,i publique et les greves [ The Republic and

SU-iAm], Paris 1878; Essai de caUchisme socialiste [Essay of Socialist Catechism],
Brussels 1878; and Collectwisme et revolution [Collectivism and Revolution],

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

*35

Fmrhien for the bronchitis he had had for so long. Here again the
weather was frightful, but the treatment did some good. Then he
went to Vevey for six weeks and came back in September, apparently
almost fully recovered. He was allowed to spend the winter on the
south coast of England, and he himself was so tired of wandering
about with nothing to do that another period of exile to the south
of Europe would probably have harmed him in spirit as much as it
would have benefited him in health. When the foggy season com-
menced in London, he was sent to the Isle of Wight. 1 here it did
nothin- but rain; he caught another cold. Schorlemmer and I
were planning to pay him a visit on New Year’s Day when news
came that made it necessary for Tussy to join him at once. T hen
followed the death of Jenny [Marx’s daughter] and he came back
with another attack of bronchitis. After all that had gone before and
at his age, this was dangerous. A number of complications set in,
particularly an abscess of the lung and a terribly rapid loss of
Length. Despite this the general course of the illness was progress-
ing favorably, and last Friday the chief physician in attendance on
him one of the foremost young doctors in London and specia y
recommended to him by Ray Lankester, gave us the most brilliant
hope for his recovery. Yet anyone who has ever examined ung
tissue under the microscope knows how great is the danger o
blood vessel being broken through in a suppurating lung. And dial
is why I had a deathly fear, every morning for the past six weeks,
of finding the shades down when I turned the corner of the street
Yesterday afternoon at 2:30, the best time 01 \isi ing >
arrived to find the house in tears. It seemed that the end was near.

I asked what had happened, tried to get at the _ bottom 1 of the
matter, to offer comfort. There had been a slight hemo^hage bu
suddenly he had begun to sink rapidly. Our good old Lenchen,
[Helene Demuth] who had looked after him better than ^
cares for her child, went upstairs and came down aga .
SrJ&p she said. I might come in. When wc en.eced .he mo™
he lay there asleep, but never to wake again. His P l ^ e ^ ^eace-
ing had stopped. In those two minutes he had passed aw y, p

fully and without pain. . . , . mn _

All events occurring with natural necessity bring the r own con
solation with them, however dreadful they may ^ ; So in this case^
Medical skill might have been able to assure him a ^w moreyears^
vegetative existence, the life of a help ess ein S* , ^ g ut

triumph of the doctors’ art — not sudt en y, _ u * - ^ ^ ^

our Marx would never have borne that. o * comp l e te
unfinished works before him, tantalized > ie cs

MARX AND ENGELS

136

them and unable to do so, would have been a thousand times more
bitter than the gentle death that overtook him. “Death is not a
misfortune for him who dies, but for him who survives,” he used to
say, quoting Epicurus. And to see this mighty genius lingering on
as a physical wreck for the greater glory of medicine and the
mockery of the philistines whom he had so often annihilated
in the prime of his strength — no, it is a thousand times better as it
is, a thousand times better that we bear him, the day after tomorrow,
to the grave where his wife lies at rest.

And after what had gone before, and what even the doctors do
not know as well as I do, there was in my opinion no other
alternative.

Be that as it may. Mankind is shorter by a head, and the greatest
head of our time. The movement of the proletariat goes on, but
gone is the central point to which Frenchmen, Russians, Americans,
and Germans spontaneously turned at decisive moments to receive
always that clear incontestable counsel which only genius and a
perfect knowledge of the situation could give. Local lights and
small talents, if not the humbugs, obtain a free hand. The final
victory is certain, but the detours, the temporary and local errors
— even now so unavoidable — will grow more than ever. Well, we
must see it through; what else are we here for? And we are far from
losing courage because of it.

Yours,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO CUNO

London, March 29, 1883

Dear Cuno:

\ our letter gave rise to universal laughter here last night. Every-
one who knew the Moor in his home life and in intimate circles
knows that he was never called Marx or even Karl, but only the
Moor, as each of us had his nickname, and they stopped using one’s
nickname only when a relationship of close intimacy ceased. The
Moor was Marx’s nickname from his university days; at the Neue
Rheinische Zeitung they likewise always called him Moor. If I had
ever called him by some other name, he would have thought some
misunderstanding had arisen between us that had to be cleared up.

Yours,

F. Engels

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

*37

ENGELS TO VAN PATTEN 1

London, April 18, 1883

Dear Comrade:

My reply to your inquiry of April 2 regarding Karl Marx’s atti-
tude toward the anarchists in general and toward Johann Most
in particular will be brief and to the point.

Since 1845 Marx and I have held the view that one of the ultimate
results of the future proletarian revolution will be the gradual
dissolution of the political organizations known by the name of
state. The main object of this organization has always been to
secure, by armed force, the economic oppression of the laboring
majority by the minority which alone possesses wealth. With the
disappearance of an exclusive wealth-possessing minority there also
disappears the need for an armed force of suppression, or state
power. At the same time, however, it was always our opinion that
in order to attain this and the other far more important aims of the
future social revolution, the working class must first take possession
of the organized political power of the state and by its aid crush the
resistance of the capitalist class and organize society anew. This
is to be found as early as the Communist Manifesto of 1847, Chapter
II, conclusion.

The anarchists stand the thing on its head. They declare that the
proletarian revolution must begin by abolishing the political organi-
zation of the state. But the only organization that the proletariat
finds ready to hand after its victory is precisely the state. This state
may require very considerable alterations before it can fulfil its
new functions. But to destroy it at such a moment would mean to
destroy the only organism by means of which the victorious prole-
tariat can assert its newly conquered power, hold down its capitalist
adversaries, and carry out that economic revolution of society
without which the whole victory must end in a new defeat and in

'This letter, written in English, was in answer to a communication from the
Secretary of the Central Labor Union of New York, Philip Van Patten, w o 1a
written Engels on April 2, 1883:

“When all parties were united in connection with the recent memoria ce e ra
tion in honor of Karl Marx, many loud declarations were made on the part ot
Johann Most and his friends that Most had stood in close relation to . arx an
had popularized his work, Capital , in Germany and that Marx had been in
agreement with the propaganda which Most had conducted. We have a \ery
opinion of the capacities and the activity of Karl Marx, but we cannot ^
that he was in sympathy with the anarchistic and disorganizing met JJ
Most, and I should like to hear your opinion as to the attitude of Karl Marx
on the question of anarchism versus socialism. Most s ill-advised, stupu c
has already done us too much harm here, and it is veiy unpleasant or us
hear that such a great authority as Marx approved of such tactics.

MARX AND ENGELS

*38

a mass slaughter of the workers similar to that aftei the I aris
Commune.

Does it require my express assurance that Marx opposed this
anarchist nonsense from the first day it was put forward in its present
form by Bakunin? The whole internal history of the International
Workingmen’s Association proves it. Ever since 1867 the anarchists
tried, by the most infamous methods, to seize the leadership of the
International; the main hindrance in their way was Marx. The
five-year struggle ended, at the Hague Congress in September 1872,
with the expulsion of the anarchists from the International, and the
man who did most to effect this expulsion was Marx. Our old
friend, Friedrich Anton Sorge, in Hoboken, who was present as a
delegate, can give you further details if you wish.

And now for Johann Most.

If anyone asserts that Most, since he became an anarchist, has
had any relations with Marx whatever or has received any assistance
from Marx, he has been deceived or he is deliberately lying. After
the publication of the first number of the London Freiheit, Most
did not visit Marx or me more than once, or at most twice. Just
as little did we visit him — we did not even meet him by chance any-
where or at any time. In the end we did not even subscribe to his
paper any more, because there was “really nothing” in it. We had
the same contempt for his anarchism and his anarchist tactics as for
the people from whom he had learned them both.

While he was still in Germany Most published a “popular” sum-
mary of Marx’s Capital. Marx was asked to look through it for a
second edition. I did this work together with Marx. We found that
it was impossible to do more than strike out the very worst of Most’s
blunders unless we were to rewrite the whole thing from begin-
ning to end. Moreover, Marx allowed his corrections to be inserted
only on the express condition that his name should never be brought
into any connection even with this corrected edition of Johann
Most’s compilation.

You are at liberty to publish this letter in the Voice of the People
if you wish.

With fraternal greetings,

F. E.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

l 39

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, April 24, 1883

Dear Sorge:

Enclosed a few lines for Hartmann from his friend Brocher, a con-
fused anarchist but honest to the core. Please transmit them.

The Volksicitung has made enough blunders, but still not as many
as I expected. And all of them have done their part — Schewitsch,
Cuno, Douai, Hepner. They were a know-better quartet of people
who know damned little, jointly and severally. Still I felt obliged to
write a few lines to the editors; they had printed my cable to you
as one addressed to them, and merely falsified the second one, to
them, to the effect that Marx died in Argenteuil. We wrote that we
here refused to put up with that; in doing this they would make it
impossible for me to send them any more communications, and if
they again permitted themselves to misuse my name in such a
manner they would compel me to ask you at once to state publicly
that the whole thing was a forgery on their part. The gentlemen
should practice their Yankee humbug among themselves. More-
over, the Americans are much more decent: according to the Volks-
zeitung a telegram had been sent to me, which I never received,
and almost believed the gentlemen of the Volkszeitung had pocketed
the money themselves. Now Van Patten writes that no money at all
had been available. Now I am compelled to publish this here, other-
wise it would be said that I had kept the telegram from the Paris
press and the Sozialdemokrat. The answer regarding Most that I
sent Van Patten in reply to his inquiry will no doubt have been
published before this letter arrives.

At the Copenhagen Congress it was decided that Liebknecht and
Bebel visit America next spring. It is a question of money for the
election campaigns of 1884-85 (all this between the two of as).
Liebknecht has suggested that Tussy [Eleanor Marx] go along as his
secretary, and she would very much like to do so; thus you are very
likely to see her there soon. We haven’t made any plans at all as )et.
Literary work (third edition of Capital, Vol. I, publication of V olume
II -the manuscript has been found, but we still do not know
how ready it is for the press or in need of additions — the biog-
raphy based on the voluminous correspondence, etc.) absorbs a
our free time, and Tussy has a number of literary engagements to
fill besides.

You have a perfect right, of course, to print the passages of Marx s
letters dealing with Henry George. The question is, howesei,
whether it wouldn’t be better to wait until I can send you . ai* s
marginal notes in his copy of George’s book and then ptint t cm

MARX AND ENGELS

140

all together. Theoretically acute but brief and unexemplified sum-
maries, such as Marx gives, are still too difficult for the everyday
American, nor is there any hurry. As soon as I have time I shall
look the things over. If you send me the passage in question from
Marx’s letter 1 in the meantime, that will simplify the job.

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, June 29, 1883

Dear Sorge:

My evening at work has been ruined by visitors, and that gives
me some free time to write you.

The criticism of Henry George that Marx sent you 2 is such
a masterpiece in content and so homogeneous in style that it would
be a pity to weaken it by adding the desultory- marginal notes written
in English in Marx's copy. These will always remain for eventual
use later. The whole letter to you was written with a view to subse-
quent publication verbatim, as Marx usually did in such cases. Thus
you are not committing any indiscretion in having it printed. If
it is to be printed in English, I’ll translate it for you, since the
translation of the Manifesto again shows that there doesn’t seem to
be anyone over there who can translate our German, at least,
into literary, grammatical English. That requires training as a writer
in both languages, and training not merely in the daily press. It is
dreadfully hard to translate the Manifesto ; the Russian translations
are still by far the best I have seen.

The third edition of Capital is giving me a tremendous amount
of work. We have a copy in which Marx notes the changes and addi-
tions to be made according to the French edition, but all the
detail work is yet to be done. I have finished it as far as “Accumula-
tion," but here this involves almost a total re-working of the whole
theoretical section. 3 Then there is the responsibility. For the
French translation is in part a simplification of the German, and
Marx would never have written like that in German. Moreover,
the bookseller is pressing me.

Before I finish with it I cannot think of undertaking Volume II.
There exist at least four versions of the beginning; that is how

•See p. 127.

•See pp. 127-29.

•See p. 108.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

141

often Marx began it, always being interrupted by illness in editing
the definitive text. I cannot say as yet how the arrangement and the
conclusion of the last one, dated 1878, will agree with the first,
dating from 1870.

Almost everything dating from the period before 1848 has been
saved: Not only the manuscripts composed by him and me at the
time almost completely (except for those gnawed away by mice), but
the correspondence, too. Everything since 1849 is complete, of
course, and the material after 1862 is even classified to some degree.
There is also very extensive written material on the International,
enough, I think, for its whole history, but I haven’t yet been able
to examine it more closely.

There are three to four mathematical manuscripts, too. I once
showed your Adolph [Sorge's son] an example of Marx's new
foundation of the differential calculus.

If not for the voluminous American and Russian material (more
than two cubic meters of books on Russian statistics alone), Volume
II [of Capital] would have been printed long ago. These detailed
studies detained him for years. As always, everything was to be
complete down to the present day, and now all that has come to
nought, with the exception of his excerpts, which I hope will con-
tain, as was his custom, many critical remarks that can be used for
the notes of Volume II. . . .

I have already read five sheets of the final proofs of the third
edition; the man promises to deliver three sheets a week.

Yours,

F. E.

I simply haven't the time to answer the many long letters sent
me by little Hepner. His reports always interest me, though mixed
with much personal gossip and written with the superiority of one
who has just landed. You must therefore convey my excuses to
him for the present.

Schewitsch has replied to me “dignifiedly," regretting my “petti-
ness." Dignity sits well on him. He'll get no answer.

Nor will Most, who must confirm everything I assert, and for
that very reason is so furious. I believe he will find support in that
sectarian land, America, and cause trouble for some time. But that
is just the character of the American movement: that all mistakes
must be experienced in practice. If American energy and vitality
were backed by European theoretical clarity, the thing would be
finished over there in ten years. But that is impossible historically.

142

ENGELS TO SORGE

MARX AND ENGELS

London, March 7, 1884

Dear Sorge:

... I shall hardly have the time to enter into a debate with
Stiebeling. Such little gods can safely be left to themselves. Besides,
sectarianism cannot be prevented in America for years to come. And
so the great Most will also end up as Karl Heinzen the Second, no
doubt. 1 am getting the Wochen [I Weekly ] - Volkszeitung , but there
isn’t much in it.

I do not know how matters stand with the trip of Bebel,
Liebknecht, or someone else to America. In reply to their inquiry
I told them that, in my opinion, it would not do to tap America
I financially] every' three years for the elections. The situation in
Germany, moreover, is very good. Our boys are standing up to it
famously. The Socialist Law is involving them in a local struggle
with the police everywhere, which entails lots of cleverness and
trickery* and usually ends victoriously for us, providing the best
propaganda in the world. All the bourgeois papers utter sighs
from time to time over the enormous progress of our people, and
they are all afraid of the coming elections. Two weeks ago I had
one of my nephews from Barmen here, a Liberal Conservative, and I
told him: “In Germany we are now so far advanced that we can
fold our hands in our laps and let our enemies work for us. Whether
you abolish, extend, or modify the Socialist Law, or make it more
rigorous, makes no difference; whatever you do plays into our
hands.” “Yes,” he said, “conditions are working for you remark-
ably.” “To be sure,” I said, “but they wouldn’t be if we hadn’t
understood them correctly as early as forty years ago and acted
accordingly.” He made no answer.

Things are going better in France, too, since Lafargue, Guesde,
and Dormoy have come out of prison. They are very active, visit the
provinces often, where most of their strength is concentrated,
luckily enough, and have papers in Reims and St. Pierre-les-Calais;
they are holding their Congress in Roubaix a month from now.
Then they have a very well-attended lecture in Paris every Sunday:
Lafargue on the materialist conception of history, Deville on
Capital. I shall write them to send you the lectures, all of which
are printed. It is fortunate that they haven’t a daily paper in Paris
at present; it is much too early for that. A new edition of the
Poverty of Philosophy is being published in Paris. It is also being
printed in German in Zurich, and in Russian in Geneva. I believe I
still haven’t sent you a copy of my Socialism Utopian and Scientific ,
because I myself have received but one or two copies. (The louts!)

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

M 3

The thing has now appeared in its third edition in German, as well
as in French, Italian, Russian, and Polish. Aveling wants to trans-
late it into English; this young man is also very good, but has too
many irons in the fire and now is engaged in a wearisome struggle
with his ex-friend Bradlaugh. As a result of the socialist movement
here the latter is losing ground and with it his — means of sub-
sistence. He has to protect himself, but it is not easy for the narrow-
minded and rascally fellow. . . .

In two weeks’ time I shall at last be able to begin on the second
volume of Capital — that is still a tremendous job, but I look forward
to it with pleasure.

Read Morgan (Lewis H.), Ancient Society , published in America
in 1877. It discloses primeval times and their communism in masterly
fashion. He independently discovered Marx's theory of history anew
and closes with communist conclusions for the present day. Cordial
regards to Adolf.

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, December 31, 1884

Dear Sorge:

. . . Capital , Volume II (about 600 printed pages), will go to press
in January. The editing will be finished in about ten days, leaving
only the revision of the final text to be done. It has cost enough
labor — there were two complete versions and six fragmentary ones!

Volume III comes next, after I have taken care of some urgent
intervening work. There are two versions and a notebook of
equations; it will also come to some 600-700 pages.

Lastly, Volume IV, Theories of Surplus Value, from the oldest
manuscript dating from 1859-1861. That is still shrouded in total
darkness; it can be undertaken only after everything else is com-
pleted. It comprises some thousand closely written quarto pages.

I am completely revising my Peasant War. It will become the
pivotal point of all German history. That too means work. But the
preliminary studies are practically completed.

The English translation of Capital is going forward slowly. More
than half is finished. Tussy’s husband, Aveling, is helping, but is not
as thorough as Sam Moore, who is doing the principal sections. . . .

The Democratic Federation here was split apart last Sunday. The
adventurer Hyndman, who had gotten control of the whole thing,

144

MARX AND ENGELS

was exposed as having incited the members against one another,
intercepted correspondence for the Council, and founded bogus
brandies in the provinces to plant his creatures in the conferences
and congresses. He received a vote of no confidence, but the majority
seceded, chiefly because, they asserted, the whole organization is
nothing but a swindle. That is true; they haven’t 400 dues-paying
members and their reading public is the sentimental bourgeoisie.
Now they want to found a new organization 1 (Morris, Bax, Aveling,
etc.), leaving Justice and To-day to Hyndman and his men (Fitz-
gerald, Champion, Burrows, etc.). They themselves, at last realizing
their weak forces, will begin with only a little monthly. As the capi-
talist financial backers also resigned (they noticed most how Hynd-
man exploited them), Hyndman will have to pay for his unprofitable
papers himself, or else sell the whole party, so far as it follows him
(which will be apparent in about a week), to the highest bidder. And
as he is trying to get into Parliament in the next elections, he must
hurry.

There are all sorts of petty-bourgeois prejudices among the German
deputies: for example, the majority wants to vote for the steamship
subsidy “in the interests of industry.” This also makes for plenty of
correspondence. Luckily there is Bebel, who always grasps the de-
cisive point correctly, and thus I hope that it will be settled without
disgrace. Since I have been carrying on the “official” correspondence
with Bebel instead of with Liebknecht, not only is everything handled
smoothly, but things get done, and my opinion reaches them intact.
Bebel is quite a splendid fellow; I hope he doesn’t ruin his shaky
health.

Well now, Happy New Year and better health-Regards to Adolf.

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY 2

London, February 10, 1885

Dear Madam:

I herewith return Mr. Putnam’s 3 letter — of course it would be
a splendid success if we could secure publication 4 by that firm —

1 The seceding group founded the Socialist League.

*This letter and all following letters to Florence Kelley were written in
English. 7

*G. H. Putnam, of the New York publishing firm.

4 Of Engels' The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

but I am afraid Mr. P. will stick to his objections, the great strength
of which, from a publisher’s standpoint, I fully recognize. Perhaps
the fact that a new German edition of my work is in actual prepara-
tion may shake him a little. My friends in Germany say that the
book is important to them just now because it describes a state of
things which is almost exactly reproduced at the present moment in
Germany; and as the development of manufacturing industry, steam
and machinery, and their social outcrop in the creation of a pro-
letariat, in America corresponds at the present moment as nearly
as possible to the English status of 1844 (though your go-ahead
people are sure to outstrip the old world in the next 15-20 years
altogether), the comparison of industrial England of 1844 with indus-
trial America of 1885 might have its interest too.

Of course in the new preface to the English translation I shall
refer as fully as space will permit to the change in the condition
of the British working class which has taken place in the interval;
to the improved position of a more or less privileged minority, to
the certainly not alleviated misery of the great body, and especially
to the impending change for the worse which must necessarily follow
the breakdown of the industrial monopoly of England in conse-
quence of the increasing competition, in the markets of the world,
of Continental Europe and especially of America.

Very sincerely yours,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SCHLUETER

London, May 15, 1885

Dear Mr. Schliiter:

As for the poems:

The Marseillaise of the Peasant War was: Eine feste Burg ist unser
Gott [A Mighty Fortress is Oar God], and conscious of victory as
the text and melody of this song are, it cannot and need not be
taken in this sense today. Other songs of the time are to be found in
collections of folksongs: Des Knaben Wunderhom, and the like.
More may perhaps be found there. But the mercenary soldier largely
pre-empted our folk poetry even then.

Of foreign songs I know only the pretty Danish song of Herr
Tidmann, which I translated in the Berlin Social-Demokrat [No. 18,
February 5, 1865] in 1865.

MARX AND ENGELS

146

There were all sorts of Chartist songs, but they aren’t to be had
any more. One began:

Britannia’s sons, though slaves you he,

God your creator made you free ;

To all he life and freedom gave,

But never, never made a slave .

I don’t know any others.

All that has vanished, nor was this poetry worth much.

In 1848 there were two songs sung to the same melody:

1 . “Schleswig-Holstein.”

2. “The Hecker Song”:

Hecker, hoch dein Name schalle
An dem ganzen deutschen Rhein.

Dcine Grossmut, ja dein Auge
Flossen schon Vertrauen ein.

Hecker, der als deutscher Mann
For der Freiheit sterben kann.

I think that’s enough. Then the variant:

Hecker, Struve, Blenker, Zitz und Blum,

Bringt die deitsche Ferschte um!

In general, the poetry of past revolutions (the Marseillaise always
excepted) rarely has a revolutionary effect for later times because it
must also reproduce the mass prejudices of the period in order to
affect the masses. Hence the religious nonsense even among the
Chartists. . . .

Yours,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, June 3, 1885

Dear Sorge:

. . . Thanks for the Gronlund and Ely, as well as for the news-
papers. Ely is a well-meaning philistine and at least takes more pains
than his German companions in adversity and stupidity, which is
always to be appreciated. Gronlund, on the other hand, makes a
strongly speculative impression on me; his pushing of our views, to
the extent that he understands them or not, obviously serves to push

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

*47

his own utopianisms as real live German socialism. In any event, a
symptom. . . .

You had the same correct forebodings about the Reichstag fel-
lows that I did — they let tremendous petty-bourgeois desires come
to light in connection with the steamship subsidy. It almost resulted
in a split, which is not desirable at the present time, as long as
the Socialist Law is in force. But as soon as we have some more elbow-
room in Germany, the split will doubtless occur and then it cannot
but be helpful. A petty-bourgeois Socialist fraction is unavoidable in
a country like Germany, where philistinism, even more than histori-
cal law, “ain’t got no beginning.” It is also useful as soon as it has
constituted itself apart from the proletarian party. But this sepa-
ration now would be merely harmful, if it were provoked by us.
If they themselves disavow the program in practice, however, so
much the better, and we can seize upon it.

You in America also suffer from all sorts of great scholars such
as Germany’s petty-bourgeois socialists possess in Geiser, Frohme,
Bios, etc. The historical digressions of the Stiebelings, Douais, etc.,
on migrations in the Sozialist amused me very much, since these
people have studied all that much better and much more thoroughly
than I have. Douai, in particular, gives himself extraordinary airs.
Thus, in No. 13 of the Sozialist he says: In the German conquests
in Italy, etc., the king received one-third of the land, two-thirds going
to the soldiers and officers, of which in turn two-thirds went to the
former slaves, etc. (( As can be read in Jornandes and Cassiodorus.”
I was dumbfounded when I read all that. “The same is reported
regarding the Visigoths” “Nor was it otherwise in France.” Now
all that is invented from A to Z, and neither in Jornandes nor in
Cassiodorus nor in any other contemporary source is there a word
of it. It is both colossal ignorance and impudence to throw such
nonsense up to me and to tell me I am “demonstrably wrong.” The
sources, practically all of which I know, state exactly the contrary.
I have let it pass this time because it happened in America, where
one can hardly fight such a matter out; let Monsieur Douai take care
in the future — I might lose patience sometime. . . .

Yours,

F. E.

MARX AND ENGELS

148

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

London, January 7, 1886

Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky:

I have received your Ms. but have not as yet been able to look at
it, so cannot say how long it will take me. Anyhow I shall lose no
time, you may be sure. As to those wise Americans who think their
country’ exempt from the consequences of fully expanded capitalist
production, they seem to live in blissful ignorance of the fact that
sundry states, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, etc.,
have such an institution as a Labor Bureau, from the reports of
which they might learn something to the contrary.

Yours very truly,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, January 29, 1886

Dear Sorge:

... An American woman [Florence Kelley Wischnewetzky] has
translated my book on the working class in England and has also
sent me the manuscript for revision — some passages of which will
take some time. Publication in America is assured, but I can’t
understand what this person now finds in the old thing. . . . Give
Dietzgen my regards. He has a hard row to hoe, but it will come
out all right. After all, the movement in America is making fine
progress. It was not to be expected that the Anglo-Americans go at
the thing other than in their way, contemptuous of reason and
science, but they are coming closer none the less. And, finally, they
will come over altogether. Capitalist centralization is proceeding
there with seven-league boots, quite otherwise than over here.

I trust your health is again fully restored; I am quite well, on the
whole, else I could never get through with my work.

I am persuading Bebel to go over there together with Liebknecht.
Perhaps Tussy and Aveling will go along. But that is still far off.

Best regards to Adolf.

Yours,

F. Engels

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

149

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

London, February 3, 1886

My dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky:

Today I forwarded to you, registered, the first portion of the
Ms. up to your page 70, inclusive. I am sorry I could not possibly
send it sooner. But I had a job on my hand which must be finished
before I could start with your Ms. Now I shall get on swimmingly;
as I proceed I find we get better acquainted with each other, you
with my peculiar old-fashioned German, I with your American. And
indeed, I learn a good deal at it. Never before did the difference
between British and American English strike me so vividly as in this
experimentum in proprio corpore vili [experiment on my own poor
body]. What a splendid future must there be in store for a language
which gets enriched and developed on two sides of an ocean, and
which may expect further additions from Australia and India!

I do not know whether this portion of the Ms. will arrive in
time to reach Miss Foster 1 before her sailing, but I hope you will
not be put to any particular inconvenience through my delay,
which was indeed unavoidable. I cannot be grateful enough to all
the friends who wish to translate both Marx’s and my writings into
the various civilized languages and who show their confidence in
me by asking me to look over their translations. And I am willing
enough to do it, but for me as well as for others the day has but 24
hours, and so I cannot possibly always arrange to please everybody
and to chime in with all arrangements made.

If I am not too often interrupted in the evenings, I hope to be
able to send you the remainder of the Ms. and possibly also the
introduction in a fortnight. This latter may be printed either as a
preface or as an appendix. As to the length of it I am utterlv
incapable of giving you any idea. I shall try to make it as short as
possible, especially as it will be useless for me to try to combat
arguments of the American press with which I am not even super-
ficially acquainted. Of course, if American workingmen will not read
their own states’ Labor Reports, but trust to politicians’ extracts,
nobody can help them. But it strikes me that the present chronic
depression, which seems endless so far, will tell its tale in America
as well as in England. America will smash up England’s industrial
monopoly — whatever there is left of it — but America cannot her-
self succeed to that monopoly. And unless one country has the
monopoly of the markets of the world, at least in the decisive

1 A friend of Florence Kelley, who was arranging for publication of her
translation of Engels* book.

MARX AND ENGELS

150

branches of the trade, the conditions — relatively favorable — which
existed here in England front 1848 to 1870 cannot anywhere be repro-
duced, and even in America die condition of the working class must
gradually sink lower and lower. For if there are three countries
(say England, America, and Germany) competing on comparatively
equal terms for the possession of the Weltmarkt [world market],
there is no chance but chronic overproduction, one of the three
being capable of supplying die whole quantity required. That is the
reason why 1 am watching die development of the present crisis
with greater interest than ever and why I believe it will mark an
epoch in the mental and political history' of the American and Eng-
lish working classes — the very tw r o whose assistance is as absolutely
necessary as it is desirable.

Yours very truly,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

February 9, 1886

D[ear] Sforge]:

You will have received my letter of January 30, as well as To-day,
and the new edition of the Kom[munisten] prozess. 1 N[ew] Y[ork]
Volks [zeitung] — Wochenbl[alt] of January 23 received, nothing
else. You will also have received the September issue of To-day.

Yesterday the gentlemen of the Sfocial] Democratic] Federation]
again committed the most horrible idiocy in the streets — it will have
been telegraphed to you already. Let’s hope they are now played out.
How is Adolf getting along in his business?

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

London, February 25, 1886

Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky:

To-day f mailed to you, registered, the rest of the Ms. with my —
introduction or postscript — according to where it may suit you to
place it. 1 believe the title had better be a simple translation: The
Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, etc.

Karl Marx, Enthiillungen iiber den Kommunistenprozess zu Koln [Revelations
of the Communist Trial in Cologne].

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

» 5 *

I am glad that all obstacles to publication have been successfully
overcome. Only I am sorry that Miss Foster has applied to the
Executive of the Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei in New York, as ap-
pears from their report of meeting in Der Sozialist, New York,
February 13. Neither Marx nor myself has ever committed the
least act which might be interpreted into asking any workingmen’s
organization to do us any personal favor — and this was necessary
not only for the sake of our own independence but also on account
of the constant bourgeois denunciations of “demagogues who coax
the workingmen out of their hard-earned pennies in order to spend
them for their own purposes.” I shall therefore be compelled to
inform that Executive that this application was made entirely with-
out my knowledge or authority. Miss F. no doubt acted in what she
thought the best way, and this step of hers is in itself no doubt per-
fectly admissible; still, if I could have foreseen it, I would have been
compelled to do everything in my power to prevent it.

The revision of your translation has delayed that of the English
translation of Das Kapital by three weeks — and at a most critical
period of the year too. I shall set about it tonight and it may take
me several months. After that, the German third volume must be
taken in hand; you see, therefore, that for some time it will be
impossible for me to undertake the revision of other translations,
unless few and far between and of small volume. I have at this
moment waiting here an Italian translation of Marx’s Lohnarbeit
und Kapital [Wage Labor and Capital ], which must wait some
weeks at least. But if you will translate that into English (it was
recently republished in Zurich) and will not be too pressing for time,
I shall be glad to revise it, and you cannot have a better popular
pamphlet than that. My Entwicklung [Socialism: Utopian and
Scientific ] Aveling intends to translate, and as the subject is in part
rather difficult, I could not well give it to anyone except he be here
on the spot, accessible to verbal explanation. As to my Anti-Duhring,
I hardly think the English-speaking public would swallow that con-
troversy and the hostility to religion which pervades the book. How-
ever, we may discuss that later on, if you are of a different opinion.
At present Marx’s posthumous manuscripts must be dealt with before
anything else.

The semi-Hegelian language of a good many passages of my old
book is not only untranslatable but has lost the greater part of
its meaning even in German. I have therefore modernized it as much
as possible.

Yours very truly,

F. Engels

MARX AND ENGELS

152

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

London, March 12, 1886

Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky:

Deeply buried as I am in the English Capital, I have only the
time to write a few lines in haste. It did not require all your exposi-
tion of the circumstances to convince me that you were perfectly
innocent of what had been done in America with your translation.
The thing is done and can't be helped, though we both are con-
vinced that it was a mistake.

I thank you for pointing out to me a passage in the appendix
which indeed is far from clear. The gradation from the Polish Jew
to the Hamburger, and from the Hamburger again to the Manches-
ter merchant, does not at all come out to the front. I have tried to
alter it in a way which may meet both your and my objections to it
and hope I have succeeded.

And now I cannot conclude without expressing to you my most
sincere thanks to you for the very great trouble you have taken to
revive, in English, a book of mine which is half-forgotten in the
original German.

Ever at your service as far as my time and powers allow, believe
me, dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky,

Yours very faithfully,

F. Engels

The dedication to the English Workingmen should be left out.
It has no meaning today.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, April 29, 1886

Dear Sorge:

. . . The manuscript 1 contains largely the same things that Marx
noted in his copy for the third edition. In other passages, which
provide for more insertions from the French, I am not binding
myself to these unconditionally (1) because the work for the third
edition was done much later and hence is decisive for me, and (2)
because, for a translation to be made in America, far away from
him, Marx would rather have had many a difficult passage correctly
translated from the French simplification than incorrectly from
the German, and this consideration now vanishes. Nevertheless, it
has given me many useful hints, which will, in time, find appli-

1 Marx’s instructions for a proposed English translation of Capital in America.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 153

cation in the German edition too. As soon as I am through with it,
I shall return it to you by registered mail. . . .

The Broadhouse-Hyndman translation of Capital is nothing but
a farce. The first chapter was translated from the German, full of
mistakes to the point of ridiculousness. Now it is being translated
from the French— the mistakes are the same. At the present rate of
speed the thing won't be finished by 1900.

Thanks for the calendar. To be sure, I had not suspected that
Douai was so terribly underrated as a great man. May he take with
him into the grave the consciousness of his greatness, together with
all of its underrating, without seeing it lessened by sugar-coating.
But he was the right man for America, and if he had remained an
ordinary democrat, I would have wished him the best of luck. But as
it is, he got into the wrong pew. As for the purist, 1 who declaims
against our style and punctuation: he knows neither German nor
English, else he wouldn’t find Anglicisms where there aren't any.
The German he admires, which was drilled into us in school, with its
horrible periodic structure and the verb at the very end — separated
from the subject by ten miles of intervening matter — it took me
thirty years to unlearn that German again. That bureaucratic school-
master's German, for which Lessing doesn't exist at all, is on the
decline even in Germany. What would this good fellow say if he
heard the deputies speaking in the Reichstag, who have abolished
this horrible construction because they always got tangled up in it
and spoke like the Jews: “Als der Bismarck ist gekommen vor die
Zwangswahl, hat er lieber den Papst gekusst auf den Hintern als
die Revolution auf den Mund>” [When Bismarck was faced with the
alternative, he kissed the Pope’s behind rather than the Revolution's
lips]. This advance was first introduced by little Lasker; it is the
only good thing he did. If Mr. Purist comes to Germany with his
schoolmaster's German, they will tell him he talks American. “You
know how petty the learned German philistine is'' — he seems to
be particularly so in America. German sentence structure together
with its punctuation as taught in the schools forty or fifty years ago
deserves only to be thrown on the scrap heap, and that is happening
to it in Germany at last.

I think I have already written you that an American lady, married
to a Russian, has gotten it into her head to translate my old book.
I looked over the translation, which required considerable work.
But she wrote that publication was assured and that it had to be
done at once, and so I had to go at it. Now it turns out that she

1 An old Gerraan-American party member had sent Sorge a commentary on the
style and punctuation of Volume II of Capital , which Sorge had sent to Engels.

MARX AND ENGELS

154

turned the negotiations over to a Miss Foster, the secretary of a
women’s rights society, and the latter committed the blunder of
giving it to the Socialist Labor Party. I told the translator what I
thought of this, but it was too late. Moreover, I am glad that the
gentlemen over there do not translate anything of mine; it would
turn out beautifully. Their German is enough, and then their
English!

The gentlemen of the Volkszeitung must be satisfied. They have
gained control of the whole movement among the Germans, and
their business must be flourishing. It is a matter of course that a man
like Dietzgen is pushed to the rear there. Playing with the boycott
and with little strikes is, of course, much more important than
theoretical education. But with all that the cause is moving ahead
mightily in America. Areal mass movement exists among the English-
speaking workers for the first time. 1 That it proceeds gropingly at
first, clumsy, unclear, unknowing, is unavoidable. All that will be
cleared up; the movement will and must develop through its own
mistakes. Theoretical ignorance is a characteristic of all young
peoples, but so is rapidity of practical development. As in England,
all the preaching is of no use in America until the actual necessity
exists. And this is present in America now, and they are becoming
conscious of it. The entrance of masses of native-born workers into
the movement in America is for me one of the greatest events of 1886.
As for the Germans over there, let the sort now flourishing join
the Americans gradually; they will still be somewhat ahead of them.
And, lastly, Aere still is a core among the Germans over there which
retains theoretical insight into the nature and the course of the whole
movement, keeps the process of fermentation going, and finally rises
to the top again.

The second great event of 1886 is the formation of a workers’
party in the French Chamber by Basly and Camdlinat, two hand-
picked “worker” deputies, nominated and elected by the Radicals,
but who, contrary to all the regulations, did not become servants
of their Radical masters but spoke as workers. The Decazeville strike 2
brought the split between them and the Radicals to a head — five
other deputies joined them. The Radicals had to come out in the
open with their policy toward the workers, and, as the government
exists only with the Radicals’ support, that was dreadful, for they

1 It was a period of great ferment among the American workers; strikes were in
preparation to win the eight-hour day, and the Knights of Labor was growing
tremendously.

* A strike of the coal miners in the south of France in January 1886 , suppressed
by government troops.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

*55

were justifiably held accountable by the workers for every act of the
government. In short, the Radicals, Clemenceau and all the others,
behaved wretchedly, and then there took place what no preacher had
succeeded in accomplishing up to then: the French workers' dejec-
tion from the Radicals. And the second result was: the union of all
the socialist fractions for joint action. Only the miserable possibilists 1
kept apart, and consequently they are disintegrating more and more
every day. The government helped this new departure tremendously
by its blunders. For it wants to float a loan of 900,000,000 francs and
needs high finance for this purpose, but the latter are also stock-
holders in Decazeville and refuse to lend the money unless the gov-
ernment breaks the strike. Hence the arrest of Due and Roche. The
workers’ reply is: Roche’s candidacy in Paris for next Sunday (elec-
tions to the Chamber) and Due’s (Quercy’s) candidacy for the
Municipal Council, where he is certain of election. In brief, a splen-
did movement is merrily under way in France again, and the best
thing about it is that our people, Guesde, Lafargue, Deville, are the
theoretical leaders.

The reaction upon Germany did not fail to make its appearance.
The revolutionary language and action of the Frenchmen made the
whining of Geiser, Viereck, Auer and Co. appear feebler than ever,
and thus only Bebel and Liebknecht spoke in the last debate on
the Socialist Law, both of them very good. With this debate we
can show our faces in respectable society again, which was by no
means the case with all of them. In general, it is good for the Ger-
mans to have their leadership disputed somewhat, especially since
they have elected so many philistine elements (which was unavoid-
able, to be sure). In Germany everything becomes philistine in quiet
periods; the spur of French competition then becomes absolutely
necessary, nor will it be lacking. French socialism has suddenly
grown from a sect into a party, and only now and only thereby
is the mass affiliation of the workers possible, for the latter are sick
and tired of sectarianism, and that was the secret of their following
the extremist bourgeois party, the Radicals. Next Sunday will show
considerable progress in the elections, though it is scarcely to be
expected that Roche will win.

I think the printing of the English translation of Capital, Volume

1 Possibilists: the petty-bourgeois, reformist wing of the French Parti Omrier,
which split off from the party in 1882. The possibilists confined the activity
of the working class within the framework of what is “possible” under capitalism.
In 1902, they organized the opportunist French Socialist Party, together with
other reformist groups as a counterpoise to the Socialist Party of France. The
two parties merged in 1905.

MARX AND ENGELS

156

I will begin in two to three weeks. I am far from through with
revision but three hundred pages are entirely ready and another
hundred nearly ready for the printer. Another thing. A Mr. J. T.
McEnnis interviewed me a few days ago under the pretext of getting
advice on labor legislation for the State of Missouri. I soon dis-
covered that newspaper business was behind it, and he confessed
that he was working for the leading democratic paper of St. Louis,
but gave me his word of honor that he would submit every word
to me in advance for revision. The man was sent to me by the
Russian Stepniak. Nearly two weeks have passed, and I am afraid he
did not keep his promise. I have forgotten the name of the St. Louis
paper. Therefore, if anything is printed regarding the interview,
please have the enclosed statement printed in Der Sozialist, the
Volkszeitung, and anywhere else you think necessary. If the man does
come and keep his promise, I shall, of course, let you know at once,
and you can then tear up the statement. Here the movement is not
progressing at all, luckily enough. Hyndman and Co. are political
careerists who spoil everything, while the anarchists are making
rapid progress in the Socialist League. Morris and Bax — one as an
emotional socialist and the other as a chaser after philosophical
paradoxes - are wholly under their control for the present and
must now undergo this experience in corpore vili [on their own poor
bodies]. You will note from the Commonweal that Aveling, largely
thanks to Tussy’s energy, no longer shares the responsibility for
this swindle, and that is good. And these muddleheads want to
lead the British working classl Fortunately the latter wants to have
absolutely nothing to do with them.

Best regards.

Yours,

F. Engels

Enclosure
To the Editor, etc:

If the St. Louis should print an interview

of one of that paper’s correspondents with me, I have the following
remarks to make:

A Mr. McEnnis did visit me as a representative of that paper,
questioning me regarding various topics, but under his promise upon
his word of honor that he would not send off a line without having
shown it to me beforehand. Instead of doing so, he has not let me
hear from him again. I therefore state herewith that I must refuse
any and all responsibility for his publication, especially as I had an

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

157

opportunity to convince myself that Mr. McEnnis, for lack of the
necessary rudimentary knowledge, would hardly be able, even with
the best of intentions, to understand my remarks correctly.

Frederick Engels

London, April 29, 1886.

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

[London] June 3, 1886

Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky:

I have looked over the proofs and corrected in pencil a few addi-
tional mistakes.

That the get-up of the work would be anything but elegant I
foresaw as soon as I knew who had it in charge, and am therefore
not much surprised; I am afraid there is no help now, so it’s no
use grumbling.

Whatever the mistakes and the Borniertheit [narrow-mindedness]
of the leaders of the movement, and partly of the newly-awakening
masses too, one thing is certain: the American working class is mov-
ing, and no mistake. And after a few false starts, they will get into
the right track soon enough. This appearance of the Americans
upon the scene I consider one of the greatest events of the year.

What the downbreak of Russian Czarism would be for the great
military monarchies of Europe — the snapping of their mainstay —
that is for the bourgeois of the whole world the breaking out of
class war in America. For America after all is the ideal of all
bourgeois: a country rich, vast, expanding, with purely bourgeois
institutions unleavened by feudal remnants of monarchical tradi-
tions, and without a permanent and hereditary proletariat. Here
every one could become, if not a capitalist, at all events an inde-
pendent man, producing or trading, with his own means, for his
own account. And because there were not, as yet, classes with oppos-
ing interests, our — and your — bourgeois thought that America
stood above class antagonisms and struggles. That delusion has now
broken down, the last Bourgeois Paradise on earth is fast chang-
ing into a Purgatorio, and can only be prevented from becoming,
like Europe, an Inferno by the go-ahead pace at which the develop-
ment of the newly fledged proletariat of America will take place.
The way in which they have made their appearance on the scene
is quite extraordinary: six months ago nobody suspected anything
and now they appear all of a sudden in such organized masses as to

MARX AND ENGELS

158

strike terror into the whole capitalist class. I only wish Marx could
have lived to see it!

I am in doubt whether to send this to Zurich or to the address
in Paris you give at foot of your letter. But as in case of mistake
Zurich is safest, I forward this and the proofs to Mr. Schluter, who
no doubt will forward them wherever it may be necessary.

Ever sincerely yours,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

Eastbourne, August 13, 1886

Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky:

My reply to your kind letter of the 9th June was delayed for the
simple reason that overwork compelled me to suspend all my cor-
respondence (such as did not command immediate despatch) until
the Ms. of the translation of Das Kapital was finally ready for the
printer. Such is now the case and I can at last attend to the heap
of unanswered letters before me; and you shall have the first chance.
Had you told me in the above letter that you had spare time on
your hand for party work, I should at once have sent you a short
reply; I am sorry if through my fault you were prevented from doing
some useful work.

I quite forgot, when proposing to you Lohnarbeit und Kapital
[ Wage Labor and Capital ], that an English translation had already
appeared in London. As this is offered for sale in New York, it
would be useless to translate it over again.

Now about Der Ursprung [The Origin of the Family]. The thing
is more difficult to translate than Die Lage [The Condition of the
Working Class in England in 1844] and w r ould require comparatively
greater attention and more time per page on your part. But if I had
time left to me for the looking it over, that would be no obstacle
provided you could devote that time and attention to it, and leave
me a larger margin of blank paper to suggest alterations. There is,
however, another matter to consider. If the thing is to come out in
English at all, it ought to be published in such a way that the public
can get hold of it through the regular book trade. That will not be
the case, as far as I can see, with Die Lage. Unless the trade arrange-
ments are very different in America from those in Europe, the book-
sellers will not deal in works published by outside establishments
belonging to a workingmen’s party. This is why Chartist and Owenite

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

159

publications are nowhere preserved and nowhere to be had, not even
in the British Museum , and why all our German party publications
are — and were, long before the Socialist Law — not to be had
through the trade, and remained unknown to the public outside
the party. That is a state of things which sometimes cannot be
avoided but ought to be avoided wherever possible. And you will
not blame me if I wish to avoid it for the English translations of
my writings, having suffered from it in Germany for more than forty
years. The state of things in England is such that publishers can
be got — either now or in the near future — for socialist works, and
I have no doubt that in the course of next year I can have an English
translation published here and the translator paid; and as I have
moreover long since promised Dr. Aveling the translation of the
Entwicklung [Socialism: Utopian and Scientific] and the Ursprung,
if he can make it pay for himself, you see that an American edition,
brought out outside the regular book trade, would only spoil the
chance of a London edition to be brought out in the way of the
regular trade and therefore accessible to the public generally and
everywhere.

Moreover, I do not think that this book is exactly what is wanted
at the present moment by the American workingman. Das Kapital
will be at their service before the year is out; that will serve them
for a piece de resistance [main dish]. For lighter, more popular litera-
ture, for real propaganda, my booklet will scarcely serve. In the
present undeveloped state of the movement, I think perhaps some of
the French popularizations would answer best. Deville and Lafargue
have published two series of lectures, Cours d'iconomie sociale
[Course of Social Economy], about two years ago, Deville taking the
economic and Lafargue the more general historic side of the Marxian
theory. No doubt Bernstein can let you look at a copy, and get one
from Paris, and then you might judge for yourself. Of course I do
not mean Deville’s larger work, the extract from Das Kapital, which
in the latter half of it is very misleading.

August 14th. To return to the Ursprung. I do not mean to say that
I have absolutely promised Aveling to let him have it, but I con-
sider myself bound to him in case a translation is to come out in
London. The final decision then would depend very much upon the
nature of the publishing arrangements you can make in America.
To a repetition of what Miss Foster has done with Die Lage I
decidedly object. When I see my way to an English edition, brought
out by a firm known in the bourgeois trade, and not only of this
book, but probably of a collection of various other writings, with the
advantage of having the translation done here (which saves me a

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MARX AND ENGELS

deal of time), you will admit that I ought to look twice before sanc-
tioning the bringing out, in America, of this little book alone and
thereby spoiling the whole arrangement. And with the present anti-
socialist scare 1 in America, I doubt whether you will find regular
publishers very willing to associate their name with socialist works.

A very good bit of work would be a series of pamphlets stating
in popular language the contents of Das Kapital. The theory of
surplus value, No. 1; the history of the various forms of surplus
value (cooperation, manufacture, modem industry), No. 2; accumu-
lation and the history of primitive accumulation, No. 3; the develop-
ment of surplus value making in colonies (last chapter), No. 4-
this would be specially instructive in America, as it would give the
economic history of that country, from a land of independent peas-
ants to a centre of modern industry and might be completed by
specially American facts.

In the meantime you may be sure that it will take some time yet
before the mass of the American working people will begin to read
socialist literature. And for those that do read and will read, there
is matter enough being provided, and least of all will Der Ursprunz
be missed by them. With the Anglo-Saxon mind, and especially with
the eminently practical development it has taken in America, theory
counts for nothing until imposed by dire necessity, and I count above
all things upon the teaching our friends will receive by the con-
sequences of their own blunders to prepare them for theoretical
schooling.

Yours very sincerely,

F. Engels

I shall be in this place until the 27th instant; after that, in London.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, September 16, 1886

Dear Sorge:

I am taking an hour off by sheer force to write you. After the
(triple) proofs of the Capital translation kept me in such suspense
that I was prevented from doing other work for weeks, they are now
coming in bunches. Six signatures are to be delivered each week
(that means 18 signatures to be corrected weekly), and everything
is to be finished in a month. Let's wait and see. But this makes for
a lively time for me, since old man Becker is coming from Geneva

1 After the Haymarket massacre in Chicago on May 4, 1886.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

l6l

to visit me tomorrow, next week Schorlemmer is coming and
probably the Lafargues, while other people also want to come here
from Switzerland. So if I don’t get a letter off today, I know I won’t
be able to do so later.

Many thanks for your efforts regarding the interviewer. 1 He
was the last. Now that he broke his word of honor I have a reason
for letting them cool their heels, unless we ourselves are interested
in spreading something through such a liar. You are right - on the
whole I cannot complain. The man tries to be at least personally
decent, and not he, but the American bourgeoisie, is responsible
for his stupidity.

A fine gang seems to be at the head of the party in New York;
the Sozialist is a model of what a paper should not be. But neither
can I support Dietzgen in his article on the anarchists 2 — he has
a peculiar way of dealing with things. If a person has a perhaps
somewhat narrow opinion on a certain point, Dietzgen cannot
emphasize enough (and often too much) that the matter has two
sides. But now, because the New Yorkers are behaving contemptibly,
he suddenly takes the other side and wants to picture us all as anar-
chists. The moment may excuse this, but he shouldn’t forget all his
dialectics at the decisive moment. However, he has gotten over it
by now, no doubt, and is certainly back on the right track; I have
no worries on that score.

In a country as untouched as America, which has developed in a
purely bourgeois fashion without any feudal past, but has unwit-
tingly taken over from England a whole store of ideology from feudal
times, such as the English common law, religion, and sectarianism,
and where the exigencies of practical labor and the concentrating of
capital have produced a contempt for all theory, which is only now
disappearing in the educated circles of scholars — in such a country
the people must become conscious of their own social interests by
making blunder after blunder. Nor will that be spared the workers;
the confusion of the trade unions, socialists, Knights of Labor, etc.,
will persist for some time to come, and they will learn only by their
own mistakes. But the main thing is that they have started moving,
that things are going ahead generally, that the spell is broken; and
they will go fast, too, faster than anywhere else, even though on a
singular road, which seems, from the theoretical standpoint, to be
an almost insane road. . . .

I hope your health is better; I am apparently still robust enough,

1 See pp. 156-57.

2 In an article in the Chicago Vorbote, Dietzgen had proposed that no distinction
should be made, for the time being, between anarchists, socialists, and communists.

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MARX AND ENGELS

but, because of an internal ailment, I have constantly suffered for the
past three years from a somewhat limited freedom of movement,
which now and then is very limited indeed, so that I am no longer
fit for military service, unfortunately.

As soon as the translation is finished I must first of all get rid
of tire minor work pressed upon me — revision of other people’s
work, particularly translations — and not let any others be forced
on me so that I can at last get back to Volume III. It lies there all
dictated, but there is still a good six months of hard work in it.
This damned English translation has cost me nearly a year. But it
was absolutely necessary, and I do not regret it.

September 17

. . . The movement here remains in the hands of adventurers
(Democratic Federation) on the one hand, and of faddists and emo-
tional socialists (Socialist League) 1 on the other. The masses still
stand aloof, though the beginning of a movement is also noticeable.
But it will still take some time before the masses get under way, and
that is good, so that time will be left to develop real leaders. In
Germany the bourgeoisie, whose cowardly stagnation is beginning to
harm us, will finally start moving somewhat again; on the one hand,
the impending change of sovereigns will start everything tottering,
and, on the other, Bismarck’s obeisance to the Tsar is arousing even
the drowsiest sleepyheads. In France the situation is excellent. The
people are learning discipline, in the provinces through the strikes,
and in Paris through opposition to the Radicals.

Best regards, Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, November 29, 1886

Dear Sorge:

. . . The Henry George boom has of course brought to light a
colossal mass of fraud, and I am glad I was not there. But in spite
of it all it was an epoch-making day. The Germans have not under-

1 The Socialist League, an organization headed by William Morris, Belfort Bax,
and the Avelings, that split off from the opportunist Social Democratic Federation
in 1884. The Commonweal was its official organ. Shortly after the formation of
the League anarchists made their way into it and, with the aid of Morris, gradually
gained control. The League’s founders left it and, in 1889, the Commonweal
likewise fell into the anarchists’ hands.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 163

stood how to use their theory as a lever which could set the Amer-
ican masses in motion; they do not understand the theory themselves
for the most part and treat it in a doctrinaire and dogmatic way as
something that has to be learned by heart, which then will satisfy
all requirements forthwith. To them it is a credo and not a guide
to action. What is more, they learn no English on principle. Hence
the American masses had to seek out their own path and seem to
have found it for the time being in the Kfnights] of L[abor], whose
confused principles and ludicrous organization seem to correspond to
their own confusion. But from all I hear, the K. of L. are a real
power, especially in New England and the West, and are becoming
more so every day owing to the brutal opposition of the capitalists.
I think it is necessary to work inside them, to form within this still
quite plastic mass a core of people who understand the movement
and its aims and will therefore take over the leadership, at least of
a section, when the inevitably impending breakup of the present
"order” takes place. The rottenest side of the K. of L. was their
political neutrality, which has resulted in sheer trickery on the part
of the Powderlys, etc.; but the edge of this has been taken off by
the behavior of the masses in the November elections, especially in
New York. The first great step of importance for every country
newly entering into the movement is always the constitution of the
workers as an independent political party, no matter how, so long
as it is a distinct workers’ party. And this step has been taken,
much more rapidly than we had a right to expect, and that is the
main thing. That the first program of this party is still confused
and extremely deficient, that it has raised the banner of Henry
George, these are unavoidable evils but also merely transitory ones.
The masses must have time and opportunity to develop, and they
can have the opportunity only when they have a movement of their
own — no matter in what form so long as it is their own movement
— in which they are driven further by their own mistakes and learn
through their mistakes. The movement in America is at the same
stage as it was with us before 1848; the really intelligent people there
will first have to play the part played by the Communist League
among the workers’ associations before 1848. Except that in America
now things will proceed infinitely faster; for the movement to have
gained such election successes after scarcely eight months of existence
is wholly unprecedented. And what is still lacking will be set going
by the bourgeoisie; nowhere in the whole world do they come out
so shamelessly and tyrannically as over there, and your judges
brilliantly outshine Bismarck’s pettifoggers in the Reich. Where
the bourgeoisie wages the struggle by such methods, the struggle

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MARX AND ENGELS

comes to a decision rapidly, and if we in Europe do not hurry up
the Americans will soon outdistance us. But just now it is doubly
necessary to have a few people on our side there who are thoroughly
versed in theory and well-tested tactics and can also speak and write
English; because, for good historical reasons, the Americans are
worlds behind in all theoretical questions, and while they did not
bring over any medieval institutions from Europe, they did bring
over masses of medieval traditions, religion, English common (feudal)
law, superstition, spiritualism, in short, every kind of imbecility
which was not directly harmful to business and which is now very
serviceable for stupefying the masses. If there are people at hand
there whose minds are theoretically clear, who can tell them the
consequences of their own mistakes beforehand and make clear to
them that every movement which does not keep the destruction of
the wage system constantly in view as the final goal is bound to go
astray and fail - then much nonsense can be avoided and the process
considerably shortened. But it must be done in English; the specific
German character must be laid aside, and for that the gentlemen
of the Sozialist hardly have the qualifications, while those of the
Volkszeitung are cleverer only where business is involved.

In Europe the effect of the American elections in November was
tremendous. That England, and America in particular, had no
labor movement up to now was the big trump card of the radical
republicans everywhere, especially in France. Now these gentlemen
have been utterly contradicted; on November 2nd the whole foun-
dation, especially of Mr. Clemenceau’s policy, collapsed. “Look at
America,” was his eternal motto; "where there is a real republic,
there is no poverty and no labor movement!” And the same thing
is happening to the liberals and "democrats” in Germany and here
— where they are also witnessing the beginnings of their own move-
ment. The very fact that the movement is so sharply accentuated as
a labor movement and has sprung up so suddenly and forcefully
has stunned the people completely.

Here the lack of any competition, on the one hand, and the gov-
ernment’s stupidity, on the other, has enabled the gentlemen of
the Social Democratic Federation to occupy a position which they
did not dare to dream of three months ago. The hubbub about the
plan — never seriously intended — of a parade behind the Lord
Mayor’s procession on November 9, and later the same hubbub
about the Trafalgar Square meeting on November 21, when the
setting-up of artillery was talked of, and the government finally
backed down — all this forced the gentlemen of the S.D.F. to hold
a very ordinary meeting at last on the 21st, without empty rodo-

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

165

montades and pseudorevolutionary demonstrations with obbligato
mob accompaniment — and the philistines suddenly gained respect
for the people who had stirred up such a fuss and yet behaved so
respectably. And since, except for the S.D.F., nobody concerns him-
self with the unemployed, who constitute a great mass each winter
during the chronic stagnation of business and suffer very acute hard-
ships, the S.D.F. has the game won in advance. The labor movement
is beginning here and no mistake, and if the S.D.F. is the first to
reap the harvest, it is the result of the cowardice of the radicals and
the stupidity of the Socialist League, which is quarreling with the
anarchists and cannot get rid of them, and hence has no time to
concern itself with the living movement that is taking place outside
in front of its face. Moreover, how long Hyndman and Co. will
persist in their present, comparatively rational mode of action is
problematical. I expect that they will soon commit colossal blunders
again; they’re in too much of a hurry. And then they will see that
this can’t be done in a serious movement.

Things are getting prettier all the time in Germany. In Leipzig
sentences of as much as four years at hard labor for “sedition”! They
want to provoke a riot at all costs. . . .

Your old

F. E.

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

London, December 28, 1886

Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky:

Your letter of November 13 th never reached me, for which I
am very sorry; it would have suited me much better to write a
preface then, and moreover would have left me more time.

But let me first congratulate you on the happy family event in
which you have been the principal actor and add my best wishes
for your own health and that of the little one newly arrived.

Of course the appendix is now a little out of date, and as I antici-
pated something of the kind, I proposed that it should be written
when the book was ready through the press. Now a preface will be
much wanted, and I will write you one; but before, I must await
the return of the Avelings to have a full report of the state of
things in America; and it seems to me that my preface will not be
exactly what you desire.

First, you seem to me to treat New York a little as the Paris of

i66

MARX AND ENGELS

America, and to overrate the importance, for the country at large,
of the local New York movement with its local features. No doubt
it has a great importance, but then the Northwest, with its back-
ground of a numerous fanning population and its independent
movement, will hardly accept blindly the George theory.

Secondly, the preface of this book is hardly the place for a thor-
oughgoing criticism of that theory, and does not even offer the
necessary space for it.

Thirdly, I should have to study thoroughly Henry George's vari-
ous writings and speeches (most of which I have not got) so as to
render impossible all replies based on subterfuges and side-issues.

My preface will of course turn entirely on the immense stride
made by the American workingman in the last ten months, and
naturally also touch H.G. and his land scheme. But it cannot pre-
tend to deal extensively with it. Nor do I think the time for that
has come. It is far more important that the movement should spread,
proceed harmoniously, take root, and embrace as much as possible
the whole American proletariat, than that it should start and pro-
ceed from the beginning on theoretically perfectly correct lines.
There is no better road to theoretical clearness of comprehension
than to learn by one's own mistakes, “durch Schaden king werden ”
And for a whole large class, there is no other road, especially for
a nation so eminently practical and so contemptuous of theory as
the Americans. The great thing is to get the working class to move
as a class ; that once obtained, they will soon find the right direction,
and all who resist, H.G. or Powderly, will be left out in the cold
with small sects of their own. Therefore I think also the K. of L.
a most important factor in the movement which ought not to be
pooh-poohed from without but to be revolutionized from within,
and I consider that many of the Germans there have made a grievous
mistake when they tried, in the face of a mighty and glorious move-
ment not of their own creation, to make of their imported and not
always understood theory a kind of alleinseligmachendes [it alone
bringing salvation] dogma, and to keep aloof from any movement
which did not accept that dogma. Our theory is not a dogma but
the exposition of a process of evolution, and that process involves
successive phases. To expect that the Americans will start with the
full consciousness of the theory worked out in older industrial
countries is to expect the impossible. What the Germans ought to
do is to act up to their own theory — if they understand it, as we
did in 1845 and 1848 — to go in for any real general working-class
movement, accept its faktische [actual] starting point as such and
work it gradually up to the theoretical level by pointing out how

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 1 67

every mistake made, every reverse suffered, was a necessary conse-
quence of mistaken theoretical orders in the original program; they
ought, in the words of the Communist Manifesto: in der Gegervwart
der Beiucgung die Zukunft der Bewegung reprdsentieren [To repre-
sent the future of the movement in the present of the movement].
But above all give the movement time to consolidate; do not make
the inevitable confusion of the first start worse confounded by
forcing down people's throats things which, at present, they cannot
properly understand but which they soon will learn. A million or
two of workingmen’s votes next November for a bona fide working-
men’s party is worth infinitely more at present than a hundred
thousand votes for a doctrinally perfect platform. The very first
attempt — soon to be made if the movement progresses — to con-
solidate the moving masses on a national basis will bring them all
face to face, Georgeites, K. of L., trade unionists, and all; and if
our German friends by that time have learnt enough of the language
of the country to go in for a discussion, then will be the time for
them to criticize the views of the others and thus, by showing up
the inconsistencies of the various standpoints, to bring them gradu-
ally to understand their own actual position, the position made for
them by the correlation of capital and wage labor. But anything that
might delay or prevent that national consolidation of the working-
men's party — on no matter what platform — I should consider a
great mistake, and therefore I do not think the time has arrived to
speak out fully and exhaustively either with regard to H.G. or the
K. of L

As to the title: / cannot omit the 1844, because the omission
would give an entirely false idea of what the reader has to expect.
And as I, by the preface and appendix, take a certain responsibility,
I cannot consent to its being left out. You may add: "With preface
and appendix by the author," if you think proper.

The proofs I return corrected by the same mail.

Yours very faithfully,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

London, January 27, 1887

Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky:

Herewith I send you, at last, the Preface. No sooner had the
Avelings returned when I was seized with a slight conjunctivitis

i68

MARX AND ENCELS

which was, however, sufficient to prevent all regular work, espe-
cially as the short time I could devote each day to writing was
unavoidably taken up by urgent correspondence. Although my eye
is not yet quite free from inflammation, yet I have managed to get
through the preface and hope the delay will not have inconvenienced
you too much.

As I have not been able to keep a copy, I must request you to
return the Ms. when done with. I suppose you will be good enough
to see it through the press.

I hope Dr. Wischnewetzky has arrived safe after a good passage.
I regret that I could not have him all to myself for a couple of hours,
but he just dropped in at an evening when, for the time being, the
old “International” was made to undergo a practical revival.

The movement in America, just at this moment, is I believe best
seen from across the ocean. On the spot personal bickering and local
disputes must obscure much of the grandeur of it. And the only
thing that could really delay its march would be the consolidation
of these differences into established sects. To some extent that will
be unavoidable, but the less of it the better. And the Germans have
most to guard against this. Our theory is a theory of evolution, not
a dogma to be learnt by heart and to be repeated mechanically.
Je weniger sie den Amerihanern von aussen eingepaukt wird und je
mehr sie sie durch eigene Erfahrung — unter dem Beistand der
Deutschen — erproben, desto tiefer geht sie ihnen in Fleisch und
Blut iiber [The less it is drilled into the Americans from the outside
and the more they test it through their own experience — with the
help of the Germans — the deeper will it pass into their flesh and
blood.] When we returned to Germany, in Spring 1848, we joined the
Democratic Party as the only possible means of gaining the ear of
the working class; we were the most advanced wing of that party,
but still a wing of it. When Marx founded the International, he
drew up the General Rules in such a way that all working-class
socialists of that period could join it — Proudhonists, Pierre Leroux-
ists, and even the more advanced section of the English trade unions:
and it was only through this latitude that the International became
what it was, the means of gradually dissolving and absorbing all
these minor sects, with the exception of the anarchists, whose sud-
den appearance in various countries was but the effect of the violent
bourgeois reaction after the Commune and could therefore safely
be left by us to die out of itself, which it did. Had we from 1864 to
1873 insisted on working together only with those who openly
adopted our platform, where should we be today? I think all our
practice has shown that it is possible to work along with the general

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

169

movement of the working class at every one of its stages without
giving up or hiding our own distinct position and even organization,
and 1 am afraid that if the German-Americans choose a different line
they will commit a great mistake.

I hope you are by this time perfectly restored to health and that
your husband and children are well too. Kind regards to Dr.
W[ischnewetzky].

Very truly yours,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

London, February 9, 1887

Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky:

I reply at once to your letter, January 28th postmark. The preface
was sent on January 27th, and your telegram received Sunday, Feb-
ruary 6th. I replied immediately per cable:

“Sent registered 27th January.”

As to the distorted passage from my letter which the irrepressible
Eaton could not refrain from publishing, it is no use for Rosenberg
and Co. to saddle Aveling with it. The passage about the hundred
thousands and millions occurred in my letter to you 1 and in no other
letter. So you will know who is responsible for this indiscretion and
for putting this nonsense into my mouth. As far as I am concerned
I have no objection to your publishing the whole passage and indeed
the whole letter.

Your fear as to my being unduly influenced by Aveling in my view
of the American movement is groundless. As soon as there was a
national American working-class movement, independent of the
Germans, my standpoint was clearly indicated by the facts of the
case. That great national movement, no matter what its first form,
is the real starting point of American working-class development.
If the Germans join it, in order to help it or to hasten its develop-
ment in the right direction, they may do a great deal of good and
play a decisive part in it. If they stand aloof, they will dwindle
down into a dogmatic sect and be brushed aside as people who do
not understand their own principles. Mrs. Aveling, who has seen
her father at work, understood this quite as well from the beginning,
and if Aveling saw it too, all the better. And all my letters to Amer-
ica, to Soige, to yourself, to the Avelings, from the very beginning,
have repeated this view over and over again. Still I was glad to see

1 See pp. 166-67.

MARX AND ENGELS

170

the Avelings before writing my preface, because they gave me some
new facts about the inner mysteries of the German party in New
York.

You appear to take it for granted that Avelmg has behaved in
America as a swindler, and not only that: you call upon me, upon
die strength of assertions and allusions contained in your letter, to
treat him as such and to do all in my power to have him excluded
from the literary organs of the party. Now for all these assertions
you cannot have any proof because you have not been able to hear
any defense. Still you are better off than we here; you have at least
heard one side, while we do not even know what the distinct charge isl

In the early hole-and-corner stages of die working-class move-
ment, when the workingmen are still under the influence of tradi-
tional prejudices, woe be to the man who, being of bourgeois origin
or superior education, goes into the movement and is rash enough to
enter into money relations with the working-class element. There is
sure to be a dispute upon the cash account, and this is at once en-
larged into an attempt at exploitation. Especially so if the "bour-
geois” happens to have views on dieoretical or tactical points that
disagree with those of the majority or even of a minority. This I
have constantly seen for more than forty years. The worst of all
were the Germans; in Germany the growth of the movement has long
since swept that failing away, but it has not died out with the Ger-
mans outside Germany. For that reason Marx and I have always
tried to avoid having any money dealings with the party, no matter
in what country.

And when the Avelings went to America I had very strong mis-
givings on that point. Only when it was arranged that the tour
should be made together with Liebknecht, I felt more at rest, be-
cause Liebknecht, as an old hand, would know how to deal with such
complaints, and because any charges brought against him on that
score would merely make the complainants ridiculous in Germany
and in Europe generally. Well, the tour was arranged differently
afterwards, and here is the result.

From this you will see that I look upon this matter a great deal
cooler than what people seem to do in New York. But moreover,
I have known Aveling for four years; I know that he has twice sacri-
ficed his social and economic position to his convictions, and might
be, had he refrained from doing so, a professor in an English univer-
sity and a distinguished physiologist instead of an overworked
journalist with a very uncertain income. I have had occasion to
observe his capacities by working with him, and his character by
seeing him pass through rather trying circumstances more than once,

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

171

and it will take a good deal (more than mere assertions and innuen-
dos) before I believe what some people tell about him now in New
York.

But then, had he tried to swindle the party, how could he do
that during all his tour without his wife being cognizant of it? And
in that case the charge includes her too. And then it becomes
utterly absurd, in my eyes at least. Her I have known from a child,
and for the last seventeen years she has been constantly about me!
And more than that, 1 have inherited from Marx the obligation to
stand by his children as he would have done himself, and to see,
as far as lies in my power, that they are not wronged. And that 1
shall do, in spite of fifty Executives. 1 he daughter of Marx swindling
the working class — too rich indeed!

Then you say: “No one here imagines that Dr. Aveling put the
money in his pocket, or spent it as the bills indicate. They believe
that he merely tried to cover his wife’s expenses.” That is a dis-
tinct charge of forgery, and this you give as an extenuating chari-
table supposition. What then, if this be the attenuated charge, what
is the full charge? And on what ground is this charge made? “The
ridiculous bills which Dr. Aveling sent in.” I should like to see a
few of these “ridiculous” bills. For fifteen weeks they were sent
every Sunday to the Executive who gave no sign of disapproval.
Nor did they budge when the Avelings, Dec. 19, returned to New
York. It was only on the 23rd, when they were on the point of leav-
ing, when they could no longer defend themselves against charges,
real or trumped-up, that the Executive discovered these bills, to
which, singly, they had never objected, were ridiculous when added
up! That is to say they object, not to the bills, but to the rules of
addition. Why, then, did the Executive, instead of shortening the
tour, try to extend it, and just at the close of it plan a second visit
of the Avelings to Chicago, which fortunately did not come off? It
strikes me that in all this it is not the bills which are ridiculous but
the Executive.

Well, at the meeting of December 23rd, the Avelings hear for the
first time that these bills are ridiculous, and the Executive lays
before them a statement of account drawn up by themselves. As
soon as his statement is objected to Dr. Aveling at once accepts that
of the Executive, according to which — as I have seen myself in
Rosenberg’s handwriting — a balance is due to him of $176.00. Then,
being again bullied by Walther, he refuses that balance, returns
$76.00 at once, and sends the rest from London. And then you say
that “Dr. Aveling’s returning the $100.00 has not helped matters at
all.” Why, what in the name of goodness do these people want then?

MARX AND ENGELS

172

Is Aveling to be treated as a swindler because the Executive appro-
priate $176.00 which, on their own showing, belong to him?

Then the mystery with which the Executive envelop this matter
becomes darker and darker. When the article in the New York
Herald appeared and was cabled across, the Avelings sent the en-
closed circular to the sections, and at the same time, to the Executive .
That circular - unless I take Aveling to be a liar and a swindler,
which I decline doing until further conclusive evidence — is in my
eyes conclusive against the Executive, at least until I see their reply.
But what do the Executive do? They get infamous attacks into the
Volkszeitung , they spread rumors and reports behind Aveling’s
back, they call meetings of the sections and lay their version before
them, and get them to vote resolutions in a matter which cannot be
judged without an impartial audit of the whole accounts and a full
defense of the absent accused. And having, as it appears, succeeded
in their New York circle to slander Aveling, not as a man who has
spent their money extravagantly (for such, rightly or wrongly, might
be their honest conviction), but as a swindler and forger of accounts,
they rise to the level of the occasion created by their own inventive
genius, and promise a circular proclaiming Aveling a swindler and
forger to the working class of the whole world! And all this, mind
you, behind the back of, and unknown to the man whom they charge,
and who can, not only not defend himself, but not even make out
the precise facts on which the charge is based! If this is the way
people are to be judged in our party, then give me the Leipzig
Reichsgericht [Supreme Court of Germany] and the Chicago jury. 1

Fortunately we have passed that stage in the older parties in
Europe. We have seen Executives rise and fall by the dozen; we
know they are as fallible as any pope, and have even known more
than one that lived sumptuously on the pence of the workingmen,
and had swindlers and forgers of accounts in their midst. In their
circular, the Executive will not only have to define their charge -
which perhaps will thus at last become known to us — but also to
prove it. People on this side do not take the word of their own
Executives for gospel, much less that of Mr. Walther and Mr. Rosen-
berg, be it ever so “official."

In my opinion, the Executive have placed themselves in a very
uncomfortable position. Had they grumbled at the accounts as
merely extravagant, they might have secured a hearing outside their
own circle, for that is more or less a matter of opinion. But having
never objected to the accounts sent in, they felt they had cut the

'The hand picked jury that convicted eight militant workers of murder after
the Haymarket massacre of May 4, 1886.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

*73

ground from under their own feet, and, as weak people do under
the circumstances, exaggerated the charge in order to cover them-
selves. Thus they came to the fresh charge of swindling and forgery
which they can never prove and must be content to insinuate. But
an infamy insinuated to cover mere weakness remains neither more
nor less an infamy. And having swelled what was originally a mere
trifling matter of disputed accounts into a criminal offense, they
actually feel bound to go before the various working-class parties
with it. And naturally, they do it in a sneaking underhand way,
preventing the accused from even hearing the charge. One mistaken
step leads to another, and at last they arrive in a complete mess and
are caught in their own net. And all that not out of inborn malice,
but sheer weakness.

You will now see that I must distinctly decline following your
advice as to "giving Kautsky a hint, not to let the letters appear
which are advertised in the name of Aveling," because the Executive
are going to launch "an official circular" against Aveling, and "his
name as one of the staff can only injure any organ." Neither
Kautsky nor myself has, I believe, ever given any ground for any-
one to suppose that we would treat thus the friends we have worked
with for years, upon the strength of mere assertions and innuendos.
And if I were to say anything of the kind to Kautsky, I should simply
drive him to the conclusion that I was either falling rapidly into
dotage or that I was no longer to be trusted across the road. Indeed
I feel certain you regretted having written this passage as soon as
the letter had gone.

I see very well that you wrote your letter in what you considered
the interests of the party, and thus were led to represent to me the
case of Aveling as hopeless and judged without appeal. But so far
he is judged by nobody but the Executive who are themselves parties,
accusers, judges, and jury all in one, for the resolution of the New
York sections, whatever it may be, counts for nothing. What the
other sections may say remains to be seen, but even they, if impar-
tial, can only declare themselves incompetent until they have the
full facts and until the accused has been heard. And I for one con-
sider it utterly ruinous to the party to introduce into it, and even
to outdo, the kind of justice practised by Bismarck and the American
bourgeois, who do at least respect forms and give the prisoner at
the bar a hearing — and for us to act thus at the very moment we
protest against these infamous proceedings.

No doubt it may suit the Executive, under the pretense of avoid-
ing public scandal, to shirk publicity. But that will not do. Either
they must retract the dishonoring charge, reduce the case to its

MARX AND ENGELS

>74

Simple dimensions of a dispute about accounts, and settle that honor-
ably and straightforwardly, or they must come out publicly with
the charge and have it fought out. There has already too much of
it been allowed to leak out, and it cannot remain where it is, nor is
Aveling the man to leave it there. And as I cannot allow the Avelings
to be accused of infamies behind their back, it was my duty to com-
municate your letter to Mrs. Aveling (he being too ill at present
and to read her my reply. And if at any time circumstances should
require the publication of this my letter, you are at liberty to pub-
lish it in full, while I reserve to myself the same right, of course
without dragging in your name, unless the people should have done
so previously.

I am, dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky,

Very truly yours,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, February 12, 1887

Dear Sorge:

Received your letter of January 30th yesterday, and sent off various
things to you the day before yesterday. More is to follow in a few
days. The English Capital is selling very well; the jackass of a pub-
lisher, who had no idea of what he had got hold of, is quite aston-
ished.

I hope your health is better; abstinence is also becoming obliga-
tory for me. Every day brings some little bodily ailment which de-
mands consideration and interferes with the customary devil-may-
care mode of life. Well, there’s no remedy for that.

Lafargue promised me, when he was here at Christmas, to send
you the Socialiste regularly. Only after his return did I get a few
extra copies of the article "situation, etc.’’! 1 It opened the French-
men’s eyes to the fact that for them war means the downfall of the
republic — unless quite extraordinarily favorable circumstances cause
a European revolution to result from it, which, however, the bour-
geois, the petty bourgeois, and the peasants also do not want. Nobody
had thought of that before, but now all of them are saying it. I am
now reading the article in Rumanian in a confused Revista Sociale
published in Jassy and am learning the language in the process.

1 Engels’ article "Situation politique de VEurope” in I-e Socialiste, No. 63 ,
November 6, 1886.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

>75

The gentlemen of the Executive of the Socialist Labor Party are
behaving quite abominably towards the Avelings. After the Herald
article was published through their indiscretion, if not inspiration,
a quite infamous article appeared in the Volkszeitung, for which I
can only hold Mr. Douai responsible for the present. The Avelings
answered the Herald scandal with the enclosed circular, which was
sent out from here around January 18th to all the sections as well as
to the Executive. Well, on January 28th the latter had a person
whom I may not name for the present, but whom you must therefore
guess, write me an embarrassed letter in which it is asserted as a fact,
an undisputed fact, that Aveling tried to cheat them. He sent in
false accounts — so it is assumed out of Christian charity — in order
to cover his wife’s hotel expenses (the party paid only the railroad
fare for Tussy), and returning the $176.00 does not change matters,
for that isn’t the point at issue at all, etc. Nothing but insinuations,
not a single fact, not even a definite charge. And then it is said:
they have already had the New York sections pass a resolution on the
matter in order to issue a circular to all the European parties to
brand Aveling. And I am called upon to warn Kautsky not to print
anything any more by such a blackguard as Aveling, who is to be
expelled from all party organs!

You can imagine how I replied to these dirty tricks. If I can find
anyone to make a copy of the letter I shall send you it — with mv
inflamed eye I cannot copy it for the third time. The gentlemen
haven’t the slightest pretext. For when Aveling first heard on Decem-
ber 23rd, through a letter from Rosenberg, that the Executive would
object to some items in his statement of account, he answered Rosen-
berg at once, sending the letter by special messenger: "I cannot
discuss money matters with the party, and am ready to accept anv-
thing without discussion that the National Executive of the S.L.P.
thinks right!” And that was before he knew what they would say
and offer him! And now these fellows go ahead, pocket Si 76.00.
which belong to the Avelings according to their own reckoning, and
declare for that very reason that Aveling, and not they themselves,
is a swindler!

Now we shall have to go through with the affair. Unfortunately,
however, we here know no one in New York except yourself who can
be relied on, ever since the Volkszeitung, too, has behaved so vul-
garly. I should be pleased if you could let us know how Schewitsch
and others stand, whether or not they have alreadv let themselves
be duped by the Executive’s lies. We would at least know whom to
turn to in New York without bothering you. But one must marvel
at the fact that the very people in New York who are indignant about

MARX AND ENGELS

176

the Chicago jury 1 outdo the disgracefulness of that jury in this case
and damn people without even giving them a hearing, without
even telling them what the charges against them are.

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, March 9, 1887

Dear Soige:

. . . We can be quite satisfied with the elections in Germany. The
increase in votes is splendid, especially under the prevailing pres-
sure not only of the government, but of the manufacturers as well,
who, wherever possible, placed before the workers the alternative of
voting for the Bismarckians or being discharged. I fear this will have
occurred again during the runoff balloting, the results of which
are not known here as yet. The Pope is forbidding the Catholics
to vote for us, the liberal gentlemen voluntarily prefer Bismarck
to the Socialists, and the manufacturers are exercising direct com-
pulsion - if we win a couple of seats under these conditions they are
well deserved. But it is not at all a question of the number of seats,
but solely of the statistical record of the irresistible growth of the
party.

You think the people disgraced themselves by electing Geiser,
Frohme, Viereck, etc. That can’t be helped. They must take the
candidates where they find them and as they find them. That is the
general lot of all workers’ parties in unremunerated parliaments.
Nor does it mean anything. The people are under no illusions at
all regarding their representatives; the best proof of this was the
complete defeat of the "fraction” in its conflict with the Sozialdemo-
krat. 2 And Messrs. Deputies know it too; the gentlemen of the Right
wing know that they are being tolerated merely because of the Social-
ist Law, and will be thrown out at once the day the party regains its
freedom of action. Then, too, matters will still be wretched enough
with our representatives, but I think I prefer the party to be better

than its parliamentary heroes — rather than the other way round

Yours,

F. Engels

1 See footnote, p. 172.

, Re K arc ^' n R the steamship subsidy which the German government tried to put
through the Reichstag. v

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

177

ENGELS TO SORGE

Dear Sorge: L ° nd ° n ' March 10 ’ ,88 7

Postcard and letter of February 21 received. You guessed right.
It would be useless to send a copy of the long letter, as the formula-
lation of the complaints in the Executive’s circular is considerably
different and milder, and up to now all the rest is only private
gossip. How the people in Europe see the thing is shown by Singer’s
reply to the circular sent him: "It is the old story; it’s only a pity that
the Avehngs have to suffer for it.” No doubt you have received this
circular, which I sent you in four English and four German copies,
as well as my letter of about a week ago.

W[ischnewetzky] is not able to translate the Manifesto. Only one
man can do that, Sam Moore, and he is working on it now; I already
have the fust section in ms. But it should be remembered that the
Manifesto , like almost all the shorter works of Marx and myself
is far too difficult for America at the present time. The workers over
there are only beginning to enter the movement . . . they are still
quite crude, tremendously backward theoretically, in particular as
a result of their general Anglo-Saxon and special American nature
and previous training — the lever must be applied directly in prac-
tice, and for that a whole new literature is necessary. I suggested to
Wfischnewetzky] some time ago that she embody the main points
of Capital m popularly written independent little pamphlets Once
the people are somewhat on the right road, the Manifesto will not
fail to make its impression, whereas now it would be effective only
among a few.

I communicated your comments on the English Capital to the
publisher, who made the very practical reply: a favorable article
m the North American Review would suffice to brin» about an
American reprint, 1 and he wants to skim the cream offlfirst. More-
over, the thing is selling very well in America, too; in addition to
Bordelli, another big bookseller has placed a standing order, while
the sale here has been so rapid that the whole first edition is gone,
except for 50 copies, and the second printing - still at the same price
- is on the press. And all that in spite of very little advertising and
before a single big newspaper has mentioned it! The first serious
article on it was in the Athenaeum of March 5 - very favorable. The
others will now follow and help us sell the' second printing, after
which the cheap third edition can be issued.

1 The North American Review was long regarded as the leading monthly maea-
zme in the United States. 7 h

MARX AND ENGELS

178

The Socialist Labor Party may be what it likes, 1 and claim for
itself the results of its predecessors’ work as much as it likes, but
it is the sole workers’ organization in America wholly standing on
our platform. It has more than 70 sections throughout the North and
West, and as such, and only as such, have I recognized it. I have
expressly said that it is a party only in name. And I am convinced
that the gentlemen of the Executive were very much disappointed
with my preface and would have preferred not to have it. For they
themselves belong to the wing which I say will ruin the party if it
gains the upper hand. And it seems to be aiming at that. In the
local Justice Rosenberg attacks the K. of L. because of the long-
shoremen’s strike; 2 he may not be entirely wrong about the indi-
vidual facts, but he displays a lack of insight into the course of the
movement that will soon destroy the party if these people continue
to rule. The very blunders of the careerist leaders of the K. of L.
and their inevitable conflicts with the Central Labor Unions in
the big Eastern cities must lead to a crisis within the K. of L. and
bring it to a head, but the blockhead doesn’t realize that. Over here
the unemployed agitation of the Social-Democratic Federation has
also collapsed without result. The church parade in St. Paul’s was
a clumsy aping of the Chartists and likewise without result; in short,
nothing is happening here as yet. Perhaps things will be better next
fall; it would be desirable for the rogues at the head of the S.D.F.
to have worn themselves out and vanished before then.

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, March 16, 1887

Dear Sorge:

Many thanks for your letters of February' 28th and March 2nd,
with the enclosures, and for your many efforts. I am returning the
Exec[utive]*s circular herewith, as we have it. We sent the enclosed
letter to Jfonas] at once in reply to the Volkszeitung article (so the
pretty Jonas kept Aveling’s reply for a whole month before deciding
to print it). If he should not print it and you can exert any pressure

1 Engels had received complaints regarding the comments on the Socialist Labor
Party made in his preface to the American edition of The Condition of the Work-
ing Class in England in 1844.

2 The great strike of nearly 30,000 longshoremen and other workers in the port
of New York in January and February 1887.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 179

upon him, it would be excellent. But his article seems to indicate
a certain retreat already.

The great point in dispute regarding the objectionable items in
A[veling]’s account will doubtless have been solved by our circular
of February 26th. It is extraordinary that people who make a fuss
about such details, which cannot be understood at all out of their
context, do not say to themselves that the other side of this context
must be heard before one takes it upon oneself to sit in judgment.
But these expenses would also have been found in Liebk[necht]’s
account if the latter had handed in his accounts at all. He said,
however, that the party must bear all my expenses, and so I’ll not
write anything down. And they were satisfied with that. The Execu-
tive] then says nothing about the fact that Aveling, in Boston, for
instance, paid almost all the expenses, not only for Lfiebknecht],
but for his daughter as well, although it is set forth in the accounts
and we were decent enough not to mention it in the circular. Lfieb-
knecht] let all the wine, etc., be brought to A[veling]’s room and
thus charged to A[veling]’s account during their trip. The Executive
knows all that and suppresses it. But the meanest of all is that it
sent out its circular over there on January 7th , but sent it to us onlv
on February 3 rd, so that it gained a whole month’s unhampered
headstart in its calumnies before we even learned what Afveling]
was really accused of.

I do not believe without further proof that the resolution] has
been adopted by most of the sections. The way in which the Knights
of Labor are being treated is, if I am to base myself upon Afvelingl’s
and Tussy’s reports, diametrically opposed to the views of all the
sections] in the West. But if that is the case, the whole “party”
can bury itself alive.

It is really fortunate that you sent me the Sozfmfc/]. Up to now
I was able to give Kautsky or the Avelings the second copy received
from the Executive, so that it had its uses. This week the fine gang
no longer sent me the paper. I take that to mean that the next num-
bers will again contain contemptible slanders of A[veling]. We wrote
to Muller in St. Paul, asking him also to print the second circular
of February 26. While the Exfecutive] exploits secret journalism in
its own wav as it pleases, it apparently wants to place the onus upon
Afvelingl if he is the first to publish.

It seemed to us here to be a matter of course that A|Velingl did
not answer the New York Herald. The article] was so weirdly absurd
and. what is more, both of them said it wasn’t customary in America
to answer such farces seriously. From what I know of the Herald
they would hardly have printed it either. Only after the artficle]

i8o

MARX AND ENGELS

was reprinted here did A[veling] reply at once. But even if A[veling]
had answered the Herald article], how would that have helped him
against the Executive]? Thus this seems to me to be a lame excuse of
Schewitsch's. In general, I am astounded at the enormous flabbiness
of most of the New Yorkers that has come to light in this connection.
The Executive] disseminates lies as big as your fist and everyone
believes it — from Jonas to Schewitsch and to the Wischnewetzkys!
The Executive] does seem to be a great authority in New York
after all.

No more time, unfortunately, to send you various papers today —
they shall go off tomorrow — mails are closing. Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, April, 6, 1887

Dear Sorge:

Postcard with Dietzgen clipping of March 24th and letter of the
25th received. Hepner will hardly be in a position to judge from
a few isolated facts whether Aveling should have been “franker."
I myself do not dare to decide it, but I merely know that in monev
matters Aveling is just as much of an unlucky fellow as Hepner
himself. Both of them have an enviable talent for getting themselves
innocently involved in differences regarding money.

Whoever told you that Kautsky has grown reserved is either lying
himself or has been deceived. I trust Kautsky as I trust myself; like
most young people, he can act somewhat precociously at times, but
if he had any doubts he would have communicated them to me first.
At any rate, I shall ask him tonight to tell me what, if anything, the
report can refer to.

Wilhelm [Wilhelm Liebknecht], who cloaked himself in silence at
first, is suddenly all afire. Here is what he writes me on March 28th
(between the two of us — please do not transmit to others the literal
text, but only whatever part of the content you consider fitting):

“The New Yorkers will probably come around. I wrote them in
a very sharp tone weeks ago — that under no circumstances will I
allow myself to be played off against Aveling and Tussy. I cate-
gorically demanded an apology , and as I have said, I think they will
submit. It is a great pity that Aveling did not write me at once when
he returned" (this is an empty excuse, as I informed him of the
principal charges, as far as we knew them then, as early as January
20th). “I learnt of the whole affair only through you, and the

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

l8l

election campaign, which naturally took all of my time, was in
progress then. And so much time has been lost. But everything will
be straightened out. If the New Yorkers are stubborn, I shall pro-
ceed against them publicly. Tell that to Aveling and Tussy."

In general the paper takes a strong stand against the gentlemen
of the Executive. Aveling has received sympathetic letters from
many private sources in New York. The American] Section in
Rochester declares that it continues to have confidence in him,
while the German Section] in Cleveland (or Buffalo, I forget)
takes his side completely. And a month ago the Executive] — with-
out waiting for the Sections' vote — sent all the documentary material
to the auditing commission for a decision, thus again appealing
to a new tribunal! Of course we wrote the commission at once, sent
them documents, and demanded access to certain letters, etc.

You will have received a copy of A[veling]’s reply to the second
Volkszeitung article, which is indeed even more scurrilous.

Our Parisians have gotten themselves into a mess again. They
lost the Cri du Peuple, and now the Socialiste is also dead for lack
of funds. For fifty years, the Paris workers have spoiled their
stomachs so much with their sectarian and phrasemongering social-
ism that they cannot stand any healthy food at the present time.
Paris, le centre du lumiere, la ville de Videe, est degouUe d'idies
[Paris, the center of enlightenment, the city of ideas, is disgusted
with ideas].

On the other hand, the crisis in Russia seems to be impending.
The last assassinations have fairly capped the climax; everything
is in a state of turmoil, and in addition general military service,
under the well-known Russian conditions, has ruined the Russian
Army, as I maintained was inevitable as much as ten years ago.

Best regards.

Yours,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, April 9, 1887

Dear Sorge:

I wrote you on the 6th and received your letter of March 29th.
Thanks for your efforts with regard to Jonas. I think they will
bear fruit.

So the Executive] wants to reply. That will mean a new conceal-
ment of facts. But this resolve to reply itself proves how absurd

i8s

MARX AND ENGELS

and shabby it was to try to cheat the sections] into rendering
judgment upon its initial allegations. First the sections] are to
decide. Then, even before the period agreed on has expired, the
Executive] begs the auditing commission for a verdict. And now it
itself confesses that further light is required before a decision can
be rendered!

In any event the gentlemen have ruined themselves. And if the
Wischnewetzkys, wdio have behaved rather like Washragskys in the
whole affair, have been constrained to call them liars, things must
have reached a pretty pass. The very fact that Mrs. Wfischnewetzky]
decided to show you my letter proves the dilemma the tw T o of them
are in. I was “humane’' enough to judge the Executive] to be real
German louts as much as a year ago.

This pleases me in so far as I now hope to be relieved of Mrs.
W[ischnewetzky]’s harassing about translations. First of all, she
translates like a factory, leaving the real work to me; second,
she neglected its publishing miserably, letting these louts get hold of
it. We are no longer so badly off that we have to go begging with
our manuscripts. And now, after I wrote an additional preface for
her, things are at a standstill, evidently just because this preface is
not to the taste of the Executive]!

The A[veling]s have also received sympathetic letters and section
resolutions from Springfield, Mass.; others will probably arrive in
the next few days from the West.

According to English Conservative reports the Swiss government
seems to be preparing to take steps against the Zurich Sozialdemo-
krat. I have expected that ever since the war scare began; when
Swiss neutrality is endangered the Swiss become villainous. It may
blow over, however.

On the other hand, everything seems to indicate that the last
two assassinations in Russia have capped the climax. Confidence in
the government had vanished long ago; now confidence in the
Tsar has gone, too. The army is full of discontented, conspiring
officers. The Pan-Slavists want to place the half-brother of the
present Tsar, the eldest son of Alexander II and the Dolgoruki
w r oman, on the throne. And the police is powerless against the
nihilists. According to the Frankfurter Zeitung 482 officers have
been sent into exile from Moscow via Odessa to the penal colony
on Sakhalin in the Pacific. I do not believe it will last out this
year, if a war does not create a way out. Rut even that will probably
come too late. And if it but starts in Russia, then hurrah!

Aveling’s campaign among the Radical clubs in the East End
here is making good progress. The relative election victories in Chi*

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

183

cago and Cincinnati now in America 1 are helping him a lot — John
Bull doesn’t want to be outdone by those other fellows; it is the only
foreign influence that has any drawing power here. In the great
coercion meeting 2 in Hyde Park the day after tomorrow Aveling
will speak from two of the fifteen platforms and Tussy from one of
them. It promises to become one of the great meetings through
which the London workers demonstrate a turning point in English
politics. Moreover, the German elections have not been without
effect here, too. . . .

Yours,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, April 23, 1887

Dear Sorge:

I wrote you on the 9th. Thanks for the postcard and the things
you sent. The publication of my preface in the Volkszeitung in a
translation made over there is effrontery twice over. First, because I
want to have nothing to do with the paper so long as it behaves so
scurrilously towards Aveling. And, second, because I cannot put
up with any outsider’s translation of my English writings into
German, and especially such a translation, which is full of mistakes
and misunderstands the most important points. This woman has
had my preface ever since the beginning of February (sent on Janu-
ary 27th), and in the only letter I have received from her since then,
dated March 19th (postmarked April 8th), she merely mentions the
plan of a German edition, for which she asked my consent — she
knew that I had no copy of it here. I wrote her at once to return
the original to me so that I might translate it. There are things
in it where each word must be weighed. And then she connives
behind my back with Jonas and Co.!

I protested at once. Let her show you my letters. This is the last
straw. It is impossible for me to work with a person who continually
commits such silliness.

But she'll hear from me. Her last long letter on the Aveling affair
can be characterized by one word alone: filth. The endeavor of a

1 The Union Labor Party had won several election victories in the spring
municipal elections in Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, and other states, mostly in the
Middle West.

2 A mass meeting protesting against the coercion laws and repressive measures
in Ireland.

MARX AND ENGELS

184

weak person, influenced by every gust of wind, to justify herself in
a wrong cause, which she herself must consider wrong. I shall
answer her next week con amove [with love]. This kind of person
must not think that she can bamboozle me like a baby.

Hyndman’s correspondence in the Standard is pitiable and cow-
ardly. He wants to maintain contact with George, while the latter
grows more and more set on his land fad, and therefore must suppress
all that is socialist. Things are going badly with him here, too.
The sensational effects have vanished and new ones can’t be had
every day. But without them Hyndman cannot maintain himself in
his role. The Avelings, on the other hand, have begun very effective
agitation in the Radical clubs of the East End, laying special em-
phasis on the American example of an independent labor party.
And the American example is the only thing that has an effect here
— besides the German elections. The cause is making good progress
and — if things continue in America as they have been going — can
cost the Liberals the whole East End of London in a year.

Things are gradually approaching a crisis in the Socialist League
as well. A delegates’ conference is to be held at Whitsuntide, and
it is hoped that the struggle with the anarchist elements that have
crept in and are being supported by Morris will be decided
there.

In Germany one persecution after another. It seems that Bis-
marck wants to have everything ready, so that when the revolution
breaks out in Russia, which is probably only a question of months,
it can immediately be started in Germany too. Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, May 4, 1887

Dear Soige:

What you write on April 28th regarding the New York louts is cer-
tainly quite true, but you must not forget that I can answer only the
points that you emphasize yourself, and not those about which you

say nothing.

The Manifesto has been translated, and only my accursed eyes
prevent me from looking over the work. In addition, a French,
an Italian, and a Danish manuscript are in my desk, waiting to be
looked through! What is more, forty years ago you were Germans, 1

1 Sorge had urged that the Communist Manifesto be translated into English,
and when Engels hesitated, declared that the Manifesto "had had an effect on us
boys even forty years ago."

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

185

with a German aptitude for theory, and that is why the Manifesto
had an effect at the time, whereas, though translated into French,
English, Flemish, Danish, etc., it had absolutely no effect upon
the other peoples. And for the untheoretical, matter-of-fact Ameri-
cans I believe simpler fare is all the more digestible since we
experienced the story told in the Manifesto, while they did not.

The affair with my book has been simply bungled by Mrs.
Wischn[ewetzky], who gave Miss Foster plein pouvoir [full powers],
which Miss Foster then turned over to the Executive]. I protested
immediately, but it had been done already. Up to the present Mrs.
Wischnewetzky has bungled everything she has handled; I shall
never give her anything again. She can do what she wants, and I
shall be glad if she accomplishes something; but I have enough,
and let her leave me in peace in the future. I answered her last
letter a week ago. 1

I sent the copy of the circular received from you to Liebknecht,
at his request, but upon condition that he return it. He promises to
send us what we require for publication.

Aveling is carrying on splendid agitation in the East End of
London. The American example is having an effect; the Radical
clubs — to whom the Liberals owe their 12 seats out of the 69 in
London — have approached [Aveling] for lectures on the American
movement, and Tussy and he are actively at work. It is an immediate
question of founding an English workers’ party with an independent
class program. If this turns out well, it will force both the Social
Democratic Federation and the Socialist League into the back-
ground, which would be the best solution of the current squabbles.
Hyndman sees that his existence is menaced, especially as he has
fallen out with almost all his followers. He has therefore reprinted
the Executive’s charges against Aveling in Justice. This is very good,
for it puts an end to the gossip behind one’s back and gives Aveling
a chance to discuss the matter everywhere. Let’s hope that the posi-
tion of the Socialist League is also cleared up at Whitsuntide; the
anarchists must be expelled or we’ll drop the whole mess.

The Avelings have sent you T ime with their articles on America;
I take it you have received it? (March, April, May numbers.) Even
the Tory Standard praises them! At the present moment the Avelings
are doing more than all the others here and are much more useful —
and then I’m supposed to answer Mother Wischnewetzky’s childish
misgivings regarding the grave charge under which Dr. Afveling]
will stand until he has disproved the circfular] of the Executive]!

1 This letter has not been found.

MARX AND ENGELS

186

The madam seems to have quite forgotten, among her gossipy
German sisters, that it is not Ajveling] who has to disprove, but the
Executive] that has to prove!

Commonweal , Gleichheit, and To-day are being sent you by
today’s steamer. De Paepe’s bragging about the Belgian socialists
in the Gleichheit will have amused you. The movement there is
going ahead very well, ever since the Flemish took matters out of
the hands of the Walloons, and the people of Ghent took them away
from those in Brussels, but the little fellow cannot avoid boasting.
What is funniest is that, while the men of Brussels would gladly
found a new international, in which they would be the General
Council, Powderly has asked them to join the K. of L. Thus Pope
Powderly competing with Pope de Paepe!

Cordial regards and wishes for your recovery. Yesterday I was
in America with the Avelings, that is to say, in Buffalo Bill’s Camp
— very fine. \ours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, May 7, 1887

Dear Sorge:

I wrote you on the 4th and received yours of April 26th. Many
thanks for the reports, which were doubtless written under severe
physical tribulations. I can only take the passage regarding Mrs.
Wischnewetzky and her regretting having wTitten her denunciatory
letter to mean that it was written with her consent to spare her a
direct pater peccavi [Father, I have sinned]. I had to write her today
and I told her “if that, as I must suppose, was written with her con-
sent, I was perfectly satisfied and had no longer any reason to revert
to that subject in a spirit of controversy.” You see, I want to make
it as easy for her as possible. But she is awkward and, besides, a
luckless person of the first water. She writes me that she wants to
publish my preface 1 in German. I have no objections, naturally.
But she knows that I kept no copy, and yet she does not send me the
Ms. so that I can translate it. Nor do I receive the book itself or even
a single galley proof of the preface. Instead, the preface is turned
over to the Volkszeitung for a thoroughly dull translation, con-
taining errors, to boot, which almost lead me to conclude that she
even copied my English Ms. incorrectly. Well, now she writes me that

1 Engels had written the preface to the American edition of The Condition of
the Working Class in England in 1844 in English.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

187

she has sent the Ms. off to me at last (not a word about the
V[olks] zfeitung] translation]) — but what doesn’t arrive is the Ms.!

I am especially pleased to hear that Mr. Jonas has had to climb
down a peg. In view of his business jealousy of the Executive] he
was the last one to have any reason for zeal in this affair on the
Executive’s] behalf; throughout this whole period he has behaved
as scurrilously as possible, just became he realized that he had
burned his fingers.

Our friend Liebkn[echt], too, suddenly does not want “to break
with the Executive.” I have put a pistol to the head of the good-
hearted L[iebknecht], who doesn’t want to spoil his relations with
either side, and he’ll come around all right. If he hadn’t made
fools of us in that manner, our reply to Circular II 1 would have
been finished already. But it is hardly so pressing, and it should be
a crushing answer. We have won, thanks to your support and activity,
without which we should be far from where we are now. It is good
that we old fellows can still rely upon one another.

Yours,

F. EngeL

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

London, May 7, 1887

Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky:

I have received your note of April 25th with thanks, but no
preface; if I receive it per next steamer on Monday I shall send
you word at once. In the meantime as I received no copy of the
book as yet, will you please see that I get at least something to
work upon, a proofsheet or whatever it is, as the V[olks]z[eitung ]
translation cannot pass under any circumstances. I shall work at the
translation as fast as my inflamed eye will allow; I am only sorry
you did not send me the Ms. or a proof as soon as the idea of a
German edition occurred to you.

Sorge writes to me: “The Wischnewetzkys greatly regret that
the dissimulations and suppressions of the Executive led them to
send you that letter, and they have made all conceivable efforts to
obtain justice for Aveling in the New York section.” 2 If this,
as I must suppose, was written with your consent, then I am
perfectly satisfied, and have no desire whatever to return to that
subject in a spirit of controversy.

1 See p. 179.

1 The quoted passage was written in German.

i88

MARX AND ENGELS

Nobody was more rejoiced than I when I learnt that the book
was finally out of the hands of that despicable Executive and of the
S.L.P. generally. Forty years’ experience has shown me how useless
and literally thrown away are all those publications by small
cliques, that by their very mode of publication are excluded from
die general book market, and diereby from literary cognizance.
It was die same thing even with the party publications in Germany
up to 1878; and only since die Sozialistengesetz [Anti-Socialist Law]
which forced our people to organize a book trade of their own, in
opposition bodi to the government and to the officially organized
Leipzig book trade, has this been overcome. And I do not see why
in America, where die movement begins with such gigantic and
imposing force, the same mistakes, with the same drawbacks in
their wake, should be quite unnecessarily gone through over again.
The whole socialist and, in England, Chartist literature has thereby
been made so extinct that even the British Museum cannot now
procure copies at any price I

I remain, dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky, very sincerely yours,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, June 30, 1887

Dear Sorge:

Letters, etc., up to June 16th received.

I am writing to the Wischnewetzkys 1 to phrase the footnote as
follows: “to repudiate the absurd slanders which Aveling has been
exposed to in consequence of his agitational tour of America.” If
they don’t want that either, they can turn to you, and then you
can, if necessary, authorize them to delete the whole footnote. For
I cannot quote Aveling without saying a word about the stuff
as well.

The story of Scribner’s announcement of Capital looks like de-
liberate piracy. Thanks for the information; I shall turn it over
to Sonnenschein. As far as I know, Scribner is not Sonnenschein's
agent in New York.

That the men of the Executive] believed they had purchased
Liebk[necht]’s silence with the election funds was to be expected
and was not unjustified. Fortunately, I had Lfiebknecht] completely
under my thumb as a result of his first bragging letter and made very
resolute use of it when he tried to withdraw.

1 This letter has not been found.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

189

Hyndman continues to gossip about A[veling] here too, and has
been greatly aided by A[veling]’s bashfulness in speaking about the
affair. If we could only get hold of the fellow once, he would have
cause to remember it, but in the meantime he himself is ruining
his position more and more. He is so miserably envious that he cannot
tolerate any competitor, and is living in open or concealed warfare
with everyone. And A[veling] has become zealous for battle at last,
and Tussy will see to it that he remains so. . . .

I am fed up with Father McGlynn, and George has turned into
a real founder of a sect. Nor did I expect anything else, but this
experience was hard to avoid in view of the newness of the move-
ment. Such people must have the length of their tether, but the
masses learn only from the consequences of their own mistakes. . . .

Yours,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

July 20, 1887

Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky:

I have returned to you by this mail the whole of the two sets of
reviews you sent me, with sincere thanks. They have greatly amused
me. Criticism is almost on the same level everywhere, from Stock-
holm and London to New York and San Francisco, and since the
rapid rise of a shoddy bourgeoisie in Russia I am afraid that even
there the reviews will soon sink to the common level.

Yours sincerely,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

Eastbourne, August 8, 1887

Dear Sorge:

. . . The story about the Wischnewetzkys is becoming more and
more entertaining. 1 Such an Executive would have been deposed
long ago in Germany. These people must think everything is per-
mitted them, and that the party will follow them through thick and
thin as a reward for their expecting the Americans to place them-

1 In meetings of the New York Section the Wischnewetzkys had bitterly attacked
the Executive for its stand in the Aveling affair, and had been expelled for so
doing.

igo

MARX AND ENGELS

selves under the command of a German group, in which the purest
louts seem to be getting more and more of an upper hand. If Messrs
Germans make that the condition for their participation over there
the movement will soon stride over them. History is on the move
over there at last, and I must know my Americans badly if they
do not astonish us all by the vastness of their movement, but also by
the gigantic nature of the mistakes they make, through which they
will finally work out their way to clarity. Ahead of everyone else
in practice and still in swaddling clothes in theory — that’s how they
are, nor can it be otherwise. But it is a land without tradition (except
for die religious), which has begun with the democratic republic,
and a people full of energy as no other. The course of the movement
will by no means follow the classic straight line, but travel in tre-
mendous zigzags and seem to be moving backward at times, but
that is of much less importance there than with us. Henry George
was an unavoidable evil, but he will soon be obliterated, like Pow-
derly or even McGlynn, whose popularity at the moment is quite
understandable in that God-fearing country. In autumn much will
be — I won’t say cleared up, but more and more complicated, and
the crisis will come closer. The annual elections, which force the
masses to unite over and over again, are really most fortunate. . . .

Yours,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

London, September 15, 1887

Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky:

I have received your letter of August 28th.

I am glad the pamphlet 1 sells so well. The copies I received I shall
hand over to Aveling, who has just returned from the country, to
be distributed partly among the socialist periodicals, partly at his
East End meetings at his lectures on the American movements. I
shall also try through him to get an agent for its sale and let
you know the result.

What I wrote about Triibner [London bookseller] has come true
more than I expected. Yesterday Dr. Baernreither, Austrian M. P.,
told me that he had asked Triibner — with whom he dealt regularly
— to procure him a copy of our book. Trfiibner] said he had none,

1 The preface to the American edition of The Condition of the Working Class
in England in 1844.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

191

and that Dr. B[aernreither] had better order it through an American
agency, whose address he gave to Bfaernreither], and through which
Bfaernreither] ordered the book. Thus Trfiibner] not only boycotts
but actually burkes the book.

As to the copies sent to Kautsky, he could hardly act otherwise
than he did. Neither Lovell nor yourself ever wrote him a line of
instruction. I myself never heard whether any copies had been
sent to the press here and to what papers. We were completely in
the dark, and if the book has not got into the hands of the English
press and not been noticed, that is entirely the fault committed on
your side of the water. Had I been informed of what had been done
in that respect, or had I been told that that was left to me, I could
have acted. There is no doubt of a sale for it here, but not while it is
in Triibner’s hands; and if I was authorized to find an agent here
I have no doubt of being able to do so: of course you would have
to send a limited number of copies as a consignment.

The repudiation of the socialists by George 1 is in my opinion an
unmerited piece of good luck which will redeem to a great extent the
— unavoidable — blunder of placing George at the head of a move-
ment he did not even understand. George as the standard-bearer of
the whole working-class movement was a dupe; George as the chief
of the Georgites will soon be a thing of the past, the leader of a
sect, like the thousands of other sects in America.

Your pamphlet on philanthropy has not yet come to hand.

Your translation of Marx’s free trade speech I shall look over
with pleasure and compare it with the French original, of which I
have perhaps the only copy extant. We will see about the preface
later on. The Seventh Bemerkung [observation] from the Misere de
la Philosophic [Poverty of Philosophy] would fit in very well. As to
the chapter on rent, that seems more doubtful, as there is a good
deal of reference to Proudhon’s notions in it and I doubt whether
Mr. Tucker’s lucubrations 2 deserve any attention.

The reply of the Executive to my footnote 3 is in itself so depreca-
tory and meaningless that to reply to it would be a work of
supererogation. 1 cannot reply in time for the congress, 4 and the
fact remains that I have openly taken sides against the Executive in
this matter. A fresh controversy across the Atlantic can lead to

1 At the Syracuse convention of the United Labor Party and in Henry George’s
weekly, The Standard.

•Tucker was the publisher of a philosophical anarchist paper. Liberty , in New
York and Boston, in which he defended and disseminated Proudhon’s doctrines.

•The footnote to Engels’ preface referred to on p. 187.

4 The national convention of the Socialist Labor Party, which met in Buffalo in
September 1887.

MARX AND ENGELS

192

nothing. As to the Socialist and Volkszeitung boycotting me, I am
sorry for it on account of the book and pamphlet, otherwise it is
a matter of perfect indifference to me; I have got over such chicanery
too often by simply waiting and looking on.

Your expulsion I read in the Volkszeitung at the time; it was
what I expected. I hope your pamphlet will come in time for the
congress; it would have been well if it had been out a month ago
so as to come into the hands of the sections before they sent delegates.
I am curious what the congress will do, but do not hope for too much.

Faithfully yours,

F. Engels

Fortunately the movement in America has now got such a start
that neither George, nor Powderly, nor the German intriguers can
spoil or stop it. Only it will take unexpected forms. The real move-
ment always looks different to what it ought to have done in the
eyes of those who were tools in preparing it.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, September 16, 1887

Dear Sorge:

... I shall be able to look for and find Marx’s letter on George
only when I begin putting things in order, that is, as soon as some
new bookcases I have ordered to give me more space arrive. Then
you’ll get a translation at once. There’s no hurry — George must
still compromise himself some more. His repudiation of the
socialists is the greatest good fortune that could happen to us.
Making him the standard-bearer last November was an unavoidable
mistake for which we had to pay. For the masses are to be set in
motion only along the road that fits each country and the prevailing
circumstances, which is usually a roundabout road. Everything
else is of subordinate importance, if only the actual arousing takes
place. But the mistakes unavoidably made in doing this are paid
for every time. And in this case it was to be feared that making the
founder of a sect the standard-bearer would burden the movement
with the follies of the sect for years to come. By expelling the
founders of the movement, establishing his sect as the special,
orthodox, George sect, and proclaiming his narrow-mindedness as
the borne [boundary] of the whole movement, George saves the
latter and ruins himself.

The movement itself will, of course, still go through many and
disagreeable phases, disagreeable particularly for those who live
in the country and have to suffer them. But I am firmly convinced

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

*93

that things are now going ahead over there, and perhaps more
rapidly than with us, notwithstanding the fact that the Americans,
for the time being, will learn almost exclusively from practice and
not so much from theory.

The reply of the New York Executive to my footnote is pitiful.
Nor do I hope for much from their convention. The people in the
East — the sections — do not seem to be worth much, while a shift
in the center of gravity of the Social-Democratic Party to the West is
rather unlikely. . . .

I shall write you about Germany as soon as I have talked with
Bebel here.

In general politics everyone is preparing for the death of old
[Kaiser] Wilhelm [I], after which the Russians will take greater
liberties in the Orient, and Bismarck will encourage them to do so in
order to hold on to his job. But I hardly think it will end in war.
The uncertainty regarding what a war will turn into is so great, the
intentions of the Cabinets to betray each other are so definite, and
the certainty that the war will have to be fiercer, bloodier, more
costly, and more exhausting than any previous one (ten to twelve
million soldiers facing one another) is so positive that all are making
threats but no one has the courage to begin. But in this game it can
start without their wanting it to, and that is the danger. . . .

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

London, December 3, 1887

Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky:

. . . Your translation of Free Trade shall have attention as soon as
ever possible. I shall also write a preface, only I am sure it will not
in any case be what you want. It is impossible for me to answer
the probable arguments of American protectionists beforehand.
I do not know that sort of literature and have no time to go into it.
My reasoning in nine cases out of ten would miss the mark, and
moreover, whatever we may say, they will always find a way out,
and have something to say that we cannot foresee. To enter into
polemics with them directly, one must be in America. And I have
always found that a good book makes its way and has its effect
whatever the penny-a-liners of the day may say.

Yours faithfully,

F. Engels

1Q4 MARX AND ENGELS

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, January 7, 1888

Dear Sorge:

First of all, Happy New Year and the prospect that you will soon
begin to feel at home in the new locality, and that you are again
fully cured of all the ills of the summer.

. . . Let's hope the war cloud blows away — everything apart from
that is going along so well according to our wishes that we can very
well dispense with a general war, which would be more colossal
than any heretofore, although even this would have to end to
our advantage. Bismarck’s policy is driving the masses of workers
and petty bourgeois into our camp in droves. The pitifulness of the
social reform, announced so pompously, which is a sheer pretext
for coercive measures against the workers (Puttkamer’s strike edict 1 ,
the proposed reintroduction of labor books, the theft of trade-union
and mutual benefit funds), is having a tremendous effect. The new
Socialist Law will do little harm; the exile provision will scarcely
pass this time , and if it does pass, its duration is questionable. For
if old Wilhelm perished soon, and the Crown Prince came to the
helm for only six months — which would be the best for us — every-
thing would probably be in confusion. Bismarck has worked so hard
to eliminate the Crown Prince altogether and to establish a regency
of young Wilhelm [the Crown Prince's son, later Kaiser Wilhelm
II] a swaggering lieutenant of the guards, that he would doubtless
be eliminated himself if this happened, a brief illusory liberal
regime taking his place. That would suffice to shatter the philistine’s
confidence in the stability of Bismarck's management; and even if
Bismarck again took over the reins under the young fellow, the
philistine's faith would be gone, and the youngster is not quite the
old man. For the false Bonapartes of today are nothing if one
doesn’t believe in them and in their invincibility. And if the
youngster and his mentor Bismarck then grew fresh and proposed
even more insolent measures than we have now, matters would
rapidly approach the critical point.

A war, on the other hand, would throw us back for years.
Chauvinism would swamp everything, for it would be a fight for
existence. Germany would put about five million armed men into
the field, or ten per cent of the population, the others about four
to five per cent, Russia relatively less. But there would be ten to
fifteen million combatants. I should like to see how they would
be fed; there would be devastation like that in the Thirty Years’

‘The decree of April u, 1886 on the employment of repressive measures
against striking workmen.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

*95

War. And nothing could be settled quickly, despite the colossal
fighting forces. For France is protected on the northeast and the
southeast by very extensive fortifications along the frontier, and the
new works around Paris are exemplary. So it will last a long time,
nor is Russia to be taken by storm either. If, therefore, everything
goes as Bismarck wishes, more will be demanded of the nation than
ever before, and it is possible enough that postponement of the
decisive victory and partial defeats will produce an internal upheaval.
But if the Germans were defeated from the outset or forced into
a permanent defensive, things would certainly start. If the war
were fought out to the end without internal disturbances, a state
of exhaustion would ensue such as Europe has not experienced for
two hundred years. American industry would then win out all
along the line and would place all of us before the alternative:
either a relapse to pure agriculture for self-consumption (American
grain prohibits anything else) or - social transformation. I imagine,
therefore, that the plan is not to push matters to the extreme, to
more than a sham war. But once the first shot is fired, control ceases,
the horse may bolt.

Thus everything is driving towards a decision, war or peace, and
I must hasten to finish Volume III. But events demand that I remain
au courant [well-informed], and that takes away much time, par-
ticularly the military side of it; and yet I must still take care of
my eyes. If I could retire to the life of a secluded scholar! For all
that, it must be done; I am starting on it next month at the latest. . . .

Your old

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, February 22, 1 888

Dear Sorge:

... I hope it doesn’t come to war, although then my military
studies, which I had to resume because of the svar scare, will be of
no use. The chances are as follows: Germany, thanks to the long-
existing general compulsory military sendee and universal elemen-
tary education, can mobilize 2,500,000 to 3,000,000 trained men
and provide them with officers and non-coms. France cannot mobilize
more than 1,250,000 to 1,500,000, and Russia scarcely 1,000.000. At
worst, Germany is capable of defending itself against the two of
them. Italy can raise and maintain 300,000 men, while Austria can

MARX AND ENGELS

196

raise about 1,000,000. Thus the German-Austrian-Italian chances
are good for a war on land, while England’s attitude decides the
war at sea. It would be very amusing if Bismarck had to cut down
his own chief support, Russian tsarisml

Everything is approaching a crisis, war or no warl Affairs in
Russia cannot remain as they are for long. The Hohenzollerns are
through: the Crown Prince mortally ill and his son a cripple, a
swaggering lieutenant of the guards. In France the downfall of the
bourgeois republic, of the exploiters, is coming closer and closer;
the scandals, like those in 1847, are threatening a revolution du
mdpris [revolution caused by contempt for the existing authorities].
And here an instinctive socialism, which fortunately resists any
definite formulation according to the dogma of one or another
socialist organization and hence will accept it all the more easily
from a decisive event, is getting more and more of a hold on the
masses. It need only start somewhere or other and the bourgeois
will marvel at the latent socialism that will break out and be
manifest then.

Your old

F. Engels

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

London, February 22, 1888

Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky:

I have duly received your letters December 21st and January 8th
and return Lovell’s letter with thanks.

I am not astonished at Gronlund’s proceedings. I was rather glad
he did not call on me here. From all I hear he is full of vanity and
self-conceit. . . . Es muss auch solche Kauze geben [it takes all sorts to
make a world]. In America not less than in England all these self-
announced grands hommes [great men] will find their own level
as soon as the masses begin to stir — and will then find themselves
shifted to that level of their own with a velocity that will astonish
them. We have had all that in Germany, and in France, and in the
International, too. . . .

Your remarks about my books being boycotted by the official
German Socialists of New York are quite correct, but I am used
to that sort of thing, and so the efforts of these gents amuse me.
Better so than to have to undergo their patronage. With them the
movement is a business, and "business is business.” This kind of

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

»97

thing won’t last very long; their efforts to boss the American move-
ment as they have done with the German-American one must fail
miserably. The masses will set all that right when once they move.

Here things go slowly but well. The various little organizations
have found their level and are willing to co-operate without bicker-
ing. The police brutalities in Trafalgar Square have done wonders
in helping to widen the gap between the workingmen Radicals and
the middle-class Liberals and Radicals; the latter have behaved
cowardly in and out of Parliament. The Law and Liberty League —
a body gaining ground every day — is the first organization in which
Socialist delegates, as such, sit aside of Radical delegates. The stu-
pidity of the present Tory government is appalling — if old Disraeli
were alive, he would box their ears right and left. But this stupidity
helps on matters wonderfully. Home Rule for Ireland and for
London is now the cry here, the latter a thing which the Liberals
fear even more than the Tories do. The working-class element is
getting more and more exasperated, through the stupid Tory
provocations, is getting daily more conscious of its strength at the
ballot-box, and more penetrated by the Socialist leaven. The
American example has opened their eyes, and if next autumn there
were to be a repetition, in any large American town, of the New
York election campaign of 1886, the effect here would be instan-
taneous. The two great Anglo-Saxon nations are sure to set up
competition in Socialism, as well as in other matters, and then it
will be a race with ever-accelerated velocity.

Can you let me have the American customs tariff, and the list of
internal taxes upon American industrial and other products? And
if possible, some information as to how the latter are balanced by
the former with regard to cost of production? That is, for instance,
if the inland duty on cigars is 20 per cent, an import duty of 20
per cent would balance it as far as foreign competition is concerned.
That is what I should like to have some information about before
I write my preface to Free Trade . 1

Reciprocating your kind wishes, I remain

Yours very truly,

F. Engels

1 "Speech on Free Trade” delivered by Marx on January 9, 1848, at an open
meeting of the Democratic Society in Brussels. See pp. 191, 99. je n-, 1 ^
translation, revised by Engels, was published by Lee and Shephard, Boston.
1888.

198 MARX AND ENGELS

ENGELS TO SCHLUETER

London, March 17, 1888

Dear Mr. Schliiter:

. . . The younger Lehmann [Kaiser Frederick III] writes an abom-
inable, affected German. He gives one every ground for a warning
against the half-educated, a horrible example of which he proved
himself to be in his confused Liberal-Conservative-Manchesterian
manifesto [Frederick Ill's speech from the throne]. Moreover, it
isn't easy to play the emperor while breathing one’s last. In any
event, if he lasts another six months, it will contribute some instabil-
ity and uncertainty to politics, and that is just what we need. As
soon as the philistine begins to suspect that the existing order is not
eternal, but on the contrary, is just about tottering, it will be the
beginning of the end. Lehmann [Kaiser Wilhelm I] was the corner-
stone of the edifice; this stone has fallen out, and we shall soon see
how far all this rubbish has rotted away. This may represent a
temporary relief for us, but depending on the circumstance, it may
also mean a temporary change for the worse or even war. In any
case — things are getting lively again.

Best wishes to Ede and Liebknecht, if the latter is with you, as I
assume.

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

London, April 11, 1888

Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky:

Your call for the ms. 1 comes upon me very suddenly and I am
afraid I shall not be able to oblige you. I am allowed to write
two hours a day, no more, have a large correspondence to attend
to, find that at the end of the two hours am only just getting warm
in harness, and then, just then, must stop. Under these circumstances
I am quite unable to do articles de saison [seasonal articles] to order,
especially for a distant market, and do not see my way to having the
pamphlet ready in ms. by May 1 5th, much less have it ready printed
in New York by that time. Still I will set about it at once, after
clearing off urgent letters, and do my best. I interrupt an important
piece of business on purpose, to clear this matter off.

Still in my opinion you need not fear of losing your opportunity.

1 The preface to Marx’s “Speech on Free Trade.’’

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

*99

The free trade question will not disappear from the American hori-
zon until settled. I am sure that protection has done its duty for the
United States and is now an obstacle, and whatever may be the fate
of the Mills bill, 1 the struggle will not end until either free trade
enables the United States manufacturers to take the leading part in
the world market to which they are entitled in many branches of
trade, or until both protectionists and free traders are shoved aside
by those behind them. Economic facts are stronger than politics,
especially if the politics are so much mixed up with corruption as
in America. I should not wonder if during the next few years one
set of American manufacturers after the other passed over to the
free traders — if they understand their interests they must.

Thanks for the official publications 2 - 1 think they will be just
what I want.

I am glad of your success against the Executive as far is it goes 3 —
from V olkszeitung Weekly March 31st I see they won’t give in
yet — there you see what an advantage it is to be on the spot.
The non-resisting weakness which went straight against the Avelings
because they were absent - that weakness you could work around
to your favor because you were not absent; and thus the hostility
to you is reduced to mere local klatsch [gossip], which with perse-
verance you are sure to overcome and live down. . . .

Yours faithfully,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

London, May 2, 1888

Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky;

By this mail I send you registered the ms., 4 that is to say, the copy
Mrs. Aveling made of it when she found that with your close hand-
writing and absence of margin it was impossible to insert in pencil
legibly the suggested alterations. T. here were many, arising fro* 11
the fact that you translated from a German translation and we had
the original to work upon. Many alterations have therefore no other

1 A tariff bill before Congress at the time.

* Mn.^Wischnewetzky had attacked the Executive Committee of the S L. V.
tor its careless publication of Engels 1 The Condition of the C “ n

England in 1844. For this she was expelled from the party, but re.nstated m

August, 1888.

4 Marx’s Speech on Free Trade.

200

MARX AND ENGELS

purpose than to bring the English text nearer to the French
original. In others, I have for the sake of clearness taken more
liberties. ore

The preface is nearly done in the rough, but as you will require
a German translation, I shall have to keep it a little longer on that
account. Anyhow I will hurry on as much as the two hours a dav
will allow me to do - my doctor has again last week bound ml
strictly to that limit.

Please tell Sorge that according to present arrangements the
Sozialdemokrat is going to be removed to London.* But it will be
well to keep this quiet for the present; when our friends intend this
to be talked about and to get it into the news-hunting press thev
will no doubt arrange that themselves.

I am boycotted here almost as much as you are in New York -
the various socialist cliques here are dissatisfied at my absolute
neutrality with regard to them, and being all of them agreed as
to that point, try to pay me out by not mentioning any of my writ
ings. Neither Our Corner (Mrs. Besant) nor To-day nor the
Christian Socialist (of this latter monthly, however, I am not quite
certain) has mentioned the Condition of the Working Class though
I sent them copies myself. I fully expected this but did not like to
say so to you until the proof was there. I don’t blame them, because
I have seriously offended them by saying that so far there is no
real working-class movement here, and that, as soon as that comes,
an the great men and women who now make themselves busy as
officers of an army without soldiers will soon find their level, and
a rather lower one than they expect. But if they think their needle-
pricks can pierce my old well-tanned and pachydermatous skin,
they are mistaken.

Yours very truly,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

_ „ London, July n, 1888

Dear Sorge: J 7

In all haste, information which you must, however, keep abso-
ute y secret. You must not be surprised if you see me over there
around the middle of August or a few days later - 1 shall perhaps

I he offices of the Sozialdemokrat , central organ of the Social-Democratic Party

R« r n^ an w Wer ! m0VCd to London aft cr the expulsion of the editorial board -
Bernstein, Motteler, SchKiter, and Tauscher - from Switzerland.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 201

make a short pleasure trip across the ocean. 1 Be so good as to tell
me at once where you live so that I can look you up, and in case
you shouldn't be there at that time, where I can find you. Also
whether the Wischnewetzkys will be in New York around that time.
I shall see nobody else upon my arrival, for I do not want to fall
into the hands of the Messrs. German Socialists — that is why the
thing must be kept secret. If I come, I shall not come alone - with
the Avelings who have business to transact over there. More soon.

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, August 4, 1888

Dear Sorge:

Thanks for your two letters, and I thank you for the hospitality
offered me. Whether I shall be able to avail myself of it, however,
is somewhat doubtful, as the following will show.

For, if everything goes well, Schorlemmer will also come along —
he is in Germany and not quite well, but wires that he is arriving on
Monday. And as we shall have to stay together — at least Schor-
lemmer and I — Aveling has already reserved rooms for all of us in
a hotel, and so I shall have to go there, at least at first. How it will
be arranged later will be decided then. At any rate Schorlemmer and
I will stay in the city only a couple of days and tour the country as
soon as possible, for he must lecture again at the beginning of
October and we want to see as much as possible.

I expect that little Cuno will be lying in wait for me, but I think
I have a magic spell to make him tractable. When I return, shortly
before we sail, I shall have to see various people at the Volkszeitung.
That can't be avoided, nor does it do any harm, but at the beginning
I want a rest.

We are leaving on the 8th on the City of Berlin . Aveling has
shifted to the dramatic field with success and is to produce four
plays over there in four cities (three and a half written by him).

As Monday is Bank Holiday, when nothing can be done because
all the shops are closed, and we must leave on Tuesday, I have all
sorts of things still to be done — I must also meet Lenchen and
Pumps (who has been married for seven years now and has two

1 Engels was fatigued, and his eyes troubled him a great deal. In order to
rest, he decided to take a trip to the United States accompanied by the chemist
Schorlemmer and the Avelings.

202

MARX AND ENGELS

children) at 5:40 at Charing Cross on their arrival from Germany
and Paris respectively, and therefore must close. I, too, am mighty
glad at the prospect of meeting again. All the rest verbally. ° 7

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

Boston, August 28, 1888

Dear old chap:

Arrived here yesterday morning, received your letters to Schor-
Iemmer and me this morning - many thanks. I left the cough medi-
cine in Hoboken, and Schorlemmer is also cured of his complaint.
We have just visited Mrs. Harney; she says Harney will come to
London in October where I shall then see him. I have not been
able to locate my nephew [Willie Burns] as yet; I think I’ll find him
tomorrow here in the hotel or in Roxbury. This Boston is badly
scattered, but more human than New York City. Cambridge, in fact,
is very pretty, quite Continental European in appearance. Cordial
greetings to you and your wife; without you we still wouldn’t be
restored to health! We are remaining here until Saturday. Letters
will be sure to reach us here until Friday evening.

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

_ „ Boston, August 31, 1888

Dear Sorge:

Received the newspaper the day before yesterday and your
letters today. Thanks! But I am sorry that your throat is not in
good shape yet, and, it seems, has even taken over my cough. If our
visit has made us well and you sick, it is a very unpleasant business.

Yesterday we were in Concord, visiting the reformatory and the
town. We liked both of them very much. A prison in which the
prisoners read novels and scientific books, establish clubs, assemble
and discuss without warders present, eat meat and fish twice daily
wnh bread ad libitum [at will], with ice water in every workroom
and fresh running water in every cell, the cells decorated with
pictures, etc., where the inmates, dressed like ordinary workers,
00 one straight in the eye without the hangdog look of the

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

203

usual criminal prisoner - that isn't to be seen in all Europe; for that
the Europeans, as I told the superintendent, are not bold enough.
And he answered in true American fashion, “Well, we try to make
it pay, and it does pay." I gained great respect for the Americans
there.

Concord is exceedingly beautiful, graceful, as one wouldn't have
expected after New York and even after Boston, but it's a splendid
hamlet to be buried in, but not alive! Four weeks there, and I should
perish or go crazy.

My nephew Willie Burns is a splendid fellow, clever, energetic,
in the movement body and soul. He is getting along well; he works
on the Boston and Providence R.R. (now the Old Colony), earns
$12.00 a week, and has a nice wife (brought along from Manchester),
and three children. He wouldn’t go back to England for any money;
he is exactly the youngster for a country like America.

Rosenberg's resignation and the strange debate on the Sozialist
in the V olkszeitung seem to be symptoms of collapse. 1

We hear but little and seldom of Europe here, merely through the
New York World and Herald .

Today Aveling will have finished all his work in America. The
rest of the time is his own. Whether we’ll go to Chicago is still
uncertain; we have plenty of time for the rest of the program. 2

Cordial greetings to your wife and to you from all of us, and
especially from your

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

Montreal, September 10, 1888

Dear Sorge:

We arrived here yesterday, after having had to turn about
between Toronto and Kingston because of a storm (it was quite a
nasty breeze) and tie up in Port Hope. Thus the two days from
I oronto to here turned into three. The St. Lawrence and the rapids
are very pretty. Canada is richer in ruined houses than any other
country but Ireland. We are trying to understand the Canadian
French here — that language beats Yankee English holler. 3 This
evening we leave for Plattsburg and then into the Adirondacks and
possibly to the Catskills, so that we can hardly be back in New

'The collapse (of the Socialist Labor Party) came one year later. See pp.
220 , 224 .

* Engels had had Sorge draw up a sort of program for his tour.

•The last phrase was written in English.

204

MARX AND ENGELS

York by Sunday. As we must board our ship Tuesday evening and
still have to see various sights in New York, and must also be
together during these last few days more than would otherwise be
necessary, Schorlemmer and I will not be able to join you in
Hoboken this time, much as we regret it, but must go to the St.
Nicholas [a hotel in downtown New York] with the Avelings. In
any event w r e are coming out to visit you as soon as we get there.

It is a strange transition from the States to Canada. First one
imagines that one is in Europe again, and then one thinks one is
in a positively retrogressing and decaying country. Here one sees
how necessary the feverish speculative spirit of the Americans is for
the rapid development of a new country (presupposing capitalist
production as a basis); and in ten years this sleepy Canada will be
ripe for annexation — the farmers in Manitoba, etc., will demand
it themselves. Besides, the country is half-annexed already socially
— hotels, newspapers, advertising, etc., all on the American pattern.
And they may tug and resist as much as they like; the economic
necessity of an infusion of Yankee blood will have its way and
abolish this ridiculous boundary line — and when the time comes,
John Bull will say M Yea and Amen” to it.

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

Plattsburg, N. Y.

Tuesday, September 11, 1888

Dear Sorge:

Landed here safely. At 1 p.m. we leave for the Adirondacks, back
tomorrow night, and then through the lakes to the Hudson. Saturday
night New York, we hope.

Should you have received letters for me, please send them to me
at Albany — Narragansett Hotel — but they must reach there Friday
evening at the latest.

I take it you have received my letter from Montreal. Your throat
is in order again, isn’t it?

Shall we see your son before we leave New York?

All of us are well and in good spirits. Best regards from all to you
and your wife.

Yours,

F. Engels

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

205

ENGELS TO SORGE

Plattsburg, N. Y.
Wednesday, September 12, 1888

Dear Sorge:

Returned this evening from Lake Placid. Tomorrow down Lake
Champlain.

I think I forgot to ask you in my last letter to get us 150 of those
cigars; we are all out of them. Best regards.

Your

F. Engels

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

New York, September 18, 1888

Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky:

We returned on Saturday evening from our trip to Boston,
Niagara, the St. Lawrence, Adirondacks, Lakes Champlain and
George, down the Hudson to New York City. We enjoyed ourselves
very much and, all of us, brought home a stock of invigorated health
which I hope will see us through the winter. Tomorrow afternoon
we are leaving per City of New York and look forward to a little
excitement, breakdowns of machinery and suchlike things, but
hope to arrive, in spite of all, in 8-10 days in London. I cannot
leave America without again expressing my regret that unfortunate
circumstances prevented me from seeing you more than once and but
for a few moments. There are so many things that we should have
talked over together, but it cannot be helped and I shall ha\e to
go on board without taking leave of you personally. Anyhow, I do
hope that the troubles you have gone through lately will be the
last, that your own health and that of Dr. Wischnewetzky and the
children will be all you can wish for. I shall be glad to hear soon
again from you, and all your wishes shall have my best attention.

I have some copies of the pamphlet from Mr. Sorge; it is very
creditably got up and, so far, I have discovered only two misprints.
Please let me know how many copies you are sending me to England
and how many I may distribute to the press; I believe it ought to
be sent to all the chief dailies and weeklies in London and some in
the provinces, also the monthlies. Of course, unless instructed to the
contrary, I shall entrust the sale to Reeves. As he has accepted the
agency for your American publications generally, his name might
have been put on the title page; he will have to print a new title
page and send in a bill for that.

206

MARX AND ENGELS

Hoping to see Dr. Wischnewetzky in London on his return i
remain, dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky, rn ' 1

Ever yours faithfully,

E. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

Dear Soige: L ° nd ° n ’ ° Ct ° bcr ,0 ’ ,888

At last we got back - a week ago last Saturday, and since then I
ave sent you two To-days, a pile of Commonweals, and today a pile
of Gleichheits, together with two more Commonweals. One Gleirh
heit is missing; Eduard Bernstein took it and I haven’t got it back vet
Little change here -the next number of the Sozialdemokm

TherT^t bere v ° l ; herwise u ™hing «*ms to have happened.
1 he City of New York is a humbug, quiet in calm weather, of
course, but once she starts rolling no one can get her out of it
so soon. And the machinery is in a miserable state -one engine
runs at hardly half-power and the other threatened to break down
any moment owing to overexertion. We didn’t do over qqo knots

m any one day, and once we did only 3 1 3 .

As far as the political situation can be surveyed, we judged it
qu.te correctly over there. For so long a time Bismarck has drummed

t°!W n tUP y< T gSter Wi,he,m that h e is a greater Old Fritz

n t 7rT be ?r t0 take h seriousl y and wants to be
both Kaiser and Chancellor in one. Bismarck is letting him do as

order That ?£rV° he - may com P romise himself seriously, in
order that the former can jump in as the saving genius. In the

meanwhile he has placed his son Herbert alongside the insolent
youngster as a spy and guard. The conflict between the wo won
be long ,n coming, and then the fun begins.

" F ™; e the * adirals are compromising themselves in the
fhevT dL tha " Wa V° be h °P ed for - A * against the workers,
behavinllfv g thC Wh ° C ° ,d P ro ^ ram of ‘heir own and are
fnr 5 , k<? ^ °PP ortunists - P^ing the chestnuts out of the
^t^,rT- n,StS a ? d doin ^ the,r dirty work. That would be
ine he m r re " 1 f ° r h° u,an ger and if they weren’t driv-

daneerom nt ,nt ° h ts arms almost forcibly. The man is not very
towards him ut t}lis mass popularity j s driving the army

“r? rt '7 r pl 7" y - a " d ,hOTin a danger - a momen

c^anassmem. 1 * V ' m ° rer ' ” i,h war a! ,he sal ' a ' i °" his

LETTER.S TO AMERICAN. S

207

So Jonas has extricated himself from the trap very cleverly and
fabricated an interview in a way that I cannot easily repudiate. 1

Mother Wischnewetzky is furious because I "was in New York for
ten days and did not find the time to undertake the two hours’ easy
railway journey to her; she had so much to talk over with me.”
Well, if I hadn’t caught cold and weren’t plagued with indigestion,
and if I had been in New York for ten days on end at all!

Cordial regards to your wife.

Your old

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

December 15, 1888

Dear Sorge:

. . . Volume III involves more than I thought. I have had to
rework a chapter completely from the material, while I myself must
construct another one, only the title of which exists. Yet the work
is going ahead, and it will astonish Messrs, economists considerably.
My eyes are better, and I am still five years younger than I was
in July. Regard to your wife. Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO MRS. [FLORENCE KELLEY] WISCHNEWETZKY

London, January 12, 1889

Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky:

No doubt you feel disappointed at my having left America without
coming to see you at your seaside retreat. But I was really too unwell,
while in New York, to attempt an excursion of any kind. As you
are aware, I arrived with a severe cold which Dr. Wischnewetzky
declared to be bronchitis. This got worse instead of better, and
moreover I got a severe indigestion which made me feel on shore
the seasickness I had not felt on the ocean. Under these circum-
stances, and with a long journey over unknown ground before
me, I felt I was bound to get cured at once and to subordinate
everything else to this consideration. I therefore placed myself
under the motherly care of Mrs. Sorge, did not leave Hoboken for

1 This refers to an article in the New York Volkszeitung on Engels’ visit to the
United States.

so8

MARX AND ENGELS

days together, and at last got right again — about the time when
we had to leave New York. Had it not been for this, I should
certainly have come to pass a day with you; as it was, I had to
choose between perfect rest at Hoboken and an excursion which was
almost sure to have upset me for the whole of the journey and
maybe laid me up somewhere far out in the country.

The 500 copies from Lee and Shephard 1 have arrived — but too
late to be sent out before the Christmas holidays, when nothing but
holiday literature is noticed. I have therefore kept them back until
now. On Monday the copies to the press will go out and the rest
be forwarded to Reeves. As the boycott of the London Socialists
against Marx and myself (exactly like that of English prehistoric
old fogies against Morgan) seems still in force, I am curious what the
effect will be.

With best wishes for the New Year,

Yours faithfully,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, January 12, 1889

Dear Sorge:

. . . What characterizes European socialism at the present moment
is discord. In France the possibilists have sold out to the govern-
ment and are supporting their papers, which have no sale, from the
secret funds. In the election on the 27th they are voting for the
bourgeois Jacques, while our people and the Blanquists have nomi-
nated Boul£, who, Lafargue thinks, will get only ten to twenty
thousand votes, which they regard as a defeat. In the provinces, on
the other hand, things are going better. The possibilists had set
their congress for Troyes, but let it drop when the organizers invited
all Socialists. Thus only our people came, and they demonstrated
there that if the possibilists dominate in Paris, the provinces belong
to us. Now there will be two congresses (international ones) in
Paris this year, that of our people and that of the possibilists. The
Germans w-ill probably attend neither one.

Here in London the farce of the army of officers without soldiers
continues. It is the Robert Blum column of '49; 2 a colonel, 1 1 offi-

* See footnote, p. 197.

2 One of the many volunteer detachments in the Baden campaign of 1849. See
Engels’ Germany: Revolution and Counter-Revolution.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

209

cers, 1 bugler, and 1 private. In public they agree with one another
outwardly, but the hidden cliques are all the greater. From time
to time there are squabbles in public again. Thus Champion has been
thrown out of the Social Democratic Federation; he founded a
newspaper (a copy of which is being sent you this week) and is
attacking Hyndman, and particularly the latter’s ally, Adolphe
Smith-Headingley, a Franco-Englishman who swears by the possi-
bilists and is the chief intermediary in the alliance between Hynd-
man and the possibilists. In the period after the Commune the
fellow was one of the loafers of the French branch 1 here, which
reviled and lied about us. Then he belonged to the pseudo-General
Council of Jung, Hales and Co., and is still lying about us now, of
which I have proof. During the International Trades Congress this
scoundrel-translator had the impudence to enter my house one
Sunday under the protection of Anseele and van Beveren. When
Schluter comes he can tell you how I threw him out.

As soon as the working class here, which is only twitching as yet,
really gets into motion, each of these gentlemen here will be put on
his level and in his proper place - partly within and partly outside
the movement. This is the stage of infantile diseases.

There are also squabbles in the office of the Sozialdemokrat.
Schluter can tell you about it. What is more, he is somewhat
involved too, and knows how to conceal what doesn’t suit him.
When I see how wrong things are managed here at the center of the
paper, I admire our workers all the more, who are able to adjust
and neutralize all that.

Mother Wischnewetzky is very much hurt because I did not visit
her in Long Branch instead of getting well in your home and put-
ting myself in shape for the trip. She seems to be hurt by a breach
of etiquette and lack of gallantry towards ladies. But I do not allow
the little women’s-rights ladies to demand gallantry from us; if they
want men’s rights, they should also let themselves be treated as men.

She will doubtless calm down. , . _

Bismarck received two pretty rebukes from Geffcken and . lorier.
That the Reich Supreme Court is still not ready to accept his

1 A “French Section of 1871" was formed by the Communard exiles. This ; sec-
tion was connected with Bakunin’s Alliance of Socialist , -jjiijhed

French exiles broke with this section of anarchists and police spies wd establish
a new section, acting in full concord with the Genera .ounci . • P- ,

2 Geffcken, a leading Conservative, had attacked Bismarck s policies 1 . A t the
of .888 Morier, secretary of the British Legation in Darmstadt was sensed rf
espionage on behalf of France during the Franco-Prussian W". ®iMaardt » »
Herbert obliquely confirmed the charge. In reply. Morier pubhshed his corre-
spondence with Marshal Bazaine. which refuted the charges against him.

210

MARX AND ENGELS

corps-student's interpretation of the criminal code is howrv
the result of the fact that young Wilhelm recently adorned th P I’
gentlemen in Leipzig with his special contempt.

Diplomatic intrigue is at its peak. The Russians have received
twenty million pounds. In April the Prussians are getting their nr,
8 mm. magazine rifle (the n mm. one -a remodeled Mauser -J!
absolutely unfit for use in war). The Austrians are wildly boasting
that they are prits et archiprets [ready and more than ready] which
shows that they want a beating again, and in France Boulanger can
take power. The only purpose of Bismarck’s maneuvers with Salis
bury in East Africa is to involve England so deeply in joint oner
ations with Germany that it cannot withdraw even under Gladstone
Hence the Morier affair was staged by Wilhelm quite against his
[Bismarck's] wishes, but he has to bear it. In short, the situation is
growing tense, and it can lead to war in the spring

Yours,

F E

[Marginal note.] Section I of Volume III [of Capital] finished; Sec-
tions II and III in work. Seven sections in all.

ENGELS TO SORGE

Dear Soige: L ° nd ° n ’ Februar ? 2 3 « ^89

Postcard of January 19th and letter of February 10th received.
I get the Labor Standard 1 and am giving Wischnewetzky’s articles
to Tussy, who will use them if a new edition of the Labor Movement
is issued They contain material that is characteristic of America.
Such neglect of safety measures against fire and the like would simply
not pay in Europe. But over there it is like the railways and every-
thing else; if they only exist, no matter how, it suffices.

hanks for the Appleton announcement. 2 Upon inquiry Sonnen

Appleton 16 * tHat hC HaS S ° ld 5<>0 C ° pieS ° f thC chea P er edition t0

I do not see Der arme Teufel [The Poor Devil]. It is Motteler’s
avonte reading material, nor does anyone begrudge him it. Whai
it says about Aveling is simply a lie, no matter what it may be. I
shall write Kautsky what you say about Rappapfortl: lack of
ma ena an t le desire for comprehensiveness brings many a person

I * paper P ublished b y J P. McDonnell in Paterson, N. J.
tion of P Capiial the ^ Y ° rk publishin 8 firm * had advertised the English transla

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

in who doesn't belong there [in the columns of Die Neue Zeit],
Kautsky has been in Vienna since July and won’t return here before

July-

I have sent you a registered book packet, containing the Holy
Family in addition to some French things. But you mustn f t tell
Schliiter that I sent it to you ; I had half-promised him my spare
copy for the archives before I left for America — but you take
precedence. It will probably arrive in March or April.

Furthermore — all by today's mail — another package of French
things in addition to the Commonweal and the Gleichheit. Lafargue's
and Deville's lectures aren't to be had here any more, and one
doesn’t get any reply from the authors. But I keep on drumming
away at them.

You will have received the issues of Fgalite. The Blanquists have
had no luck with their Cri du Peuple. It was deadly boring and so
they were compelled to collaborate with Guesde, Lafargue and Co.
(as Vaillant wanted from the outset, but he was outvoted). In addi-
tion there are a few dissatisfied Radicals. Up to the present they
are getting along well with one another — let's hope that it stays
that way. Some more numbers soon.

In the last election in Paris the possibilists compromised them
selves badly and worked for the opportunist Jacques. Now the
workers are beginning to desert them. They have lost all their sup-
port in the provinces, which are much better than Paris. The effort,
with the aid of the British trade unions and Hyndman here, their
loyal ally, to convene an international congress in Paris without
our Frenchmen, but with the Belgians, Danes, and Dutch, and, as
they hoped, with the Germans, too, is failing miserably. The Ger-
mans declare they will attend no congress if two of them take place
in Paris. And both sides are summoned to a conference at The
Hague on the 28th, with Liebknecht, Bebel, and Bernstein from
Germany, plus the Dutch and the Belgians. Lafargue is going there.
Then they will either have to give in or else find everybody against
them.

In Germany things are becoming more and more confused.
Ever since old Wilhelm died and Bismarck is tottering, the philistine
no longer has any confidence in the people in power. The vain
young fool, the second, greater Old Fritz (pour rire [in jest]), wants
to be Kaiser and Chancellor himself. The archreactionaries, the
clergy and the Junkers at the court, are bending every effort to egg
him on against Bismarck and to evoke a conflict — and in the mean-
time Wilhelm is pensioning all the old generals, putting his favorites
in their places. Three more years of this, and the commands will all

212

MARX AND ENGELS

be in the hands of swaggering dandies and the army will be ripe for
Jena. 1 Bismarck realizes this, and that is what might impel him to a
sudden war, especially if the nincompoop Boulanger rises to the top.
Then tilings will be pretty: an alliance between France and Russia
which will prohibit the French from making any revolution , as
otherwise Russia will turn against them. But I hope it will pass
over.

Cordial regards to your wife.

Your

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, May 11, 1889

Dear Sorge:

The writing and running about in connection with the damned
congress leave me hardly any time for anything else. It's the devil
of a nuisance— nothing but misunderstandings, squabbles, and vexa-
tion on all sides, and nothing will come of the whole thing in the
end.

The participants in The Hague Conference have let the Belgians
make fools of them. Instead of doing what had been decided on:
immediately making a protest and calling a counter-congress after
rejecting the possibilists (which the Swiss and the Belgians were to
have done jointly), the Belgians did nothing, maintained stubborn
silence in reply to all letters, and finally came up with the lame
excuse that they had to lay the matter before their national congress
—on April 21-22! Thereupon the others did even less than before
(because Liebknecht was scheming with some possibilists via the
Swiss, since he was the man for whom unification would have to
succeed), and so the possibilists cornered all public opinion with
their proclamations, while our people not only kept silent, but gave
only noncommittal answers to the uncertain elements among the
British, who were asking how things stood with the counter-congress.
This smart policy ended up by making the people rebellious even
in Germany, and Auer and Schippel demanded that we should
attend the possibilist congress. That opened Liebknecht’s eyes, and
—after I and Ed Bernstein had told the Frenchmen that they were
now free to call the congress for July 14th, as they originally planned
—he wrote them exactly the same thing. And so the French have
their way, but they are justifiably grumbling about Liebknecht's

1 Napoleon crushed the Prussians at the battle of Jena in 1806.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

213

delaying and scheming, for which they hold all the Germans respon-

Over here, however, it is we who have to suffer the consequences
of Liebknecht’s ingenuity. Our pamphlet struck home like a thunder-
bolt proving that Hyndman & Co. were liars and swindlers; every-
thing was in our favor, and if Liebknecht had made the Belgians take
rapid action, as was his confounded duty, or had let them go their
own way and dealt with the others himself, convoking the congress
for any date at all or letting the French convoke it, the masses would
have flocked to us, and the Social Democratic Federation would have
deserted Hyndman. In this way, however, all we got were empty
promises: we should wait a while; and since the principal wrangle
in the trade unions here was whether no delegates should be sent
to the congress, as the leaders desired, or they should be sent against
the leaders’ wishes-the quality of the congress being quite unim-
portant, the only point at issue being entering thynternauonal
movement or not-it was obvious that the rank and Me would join
those who knew what they wanted and not those who dldl \ l - A
so we lost a splendid position, which we had just captured, and unless
a miracle occurs, not an Englishman worth mentioning will attend

our congress. . . . YourS(

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE London , ^ g> ^

DearS S the middle of March until nearly the middle of May T
too was in the frame of mind about « :he ; congress in which jour
letter was written. Miraculously enough, e\eryt ng »

as the second convocation circular sent you indites,
natures of almost all Europe on it (supplemented in the appe

to Bernstein, No. 2, sent you today) .

The first pamphlet, signed by Bernstein, was edne y .
evervthing appearing in English on the affair. What you may take
exc^toTit was necessary from the local
pedal ly the explanations about the possibilists, you ^ake mm

attacks. But most important of all was the puUication 0

resolutions, 1 which the wise men in The Hague had dec

‘The resolutions of the preliminary conference mentioned on p. 212. not to be
confused with the , 87 a Congr^ of the First Internauonal.

214

MARX AND ENGELS

keep secret in infinitum. Luckily, no one here or in Paris knew of
this clever decision, and so we set to work, since the possibilists and
their adherents over here were harping on these resolutions cverv
day, telling the biggest lies about them, etc.

After the possibilists had been rejected, we naturally had to act
fast. But the Belgians, who were supposed to call the congress to
gether with the Swiss, didn’t stir-they wanted to put the thing off
until their congress at Easter time in Jolimont, and then entrench
themselves behind the resolutions passed there. And among the
Swiss, Scherrer was also a bit lazy, under the pretext of inducing the
possibihst masses, with Liebknecht’s approval, to come over to our
side over the heads of Brousse & Co.!! Liebknecht, however was
making speeches in Switzerland, and Bebel was much too unfamiliar
with the terrain to act independently in his absence.

The real battlefield was here. Bernstein’s pamphlet No. i> had
struck like a thunderbolt here. The people realized that Hyndman
& Co. had lied to them disgracefully. If our congress were convened
at once, we would have them all, and Hyndman and Brousse would
be alone. 1 he malcontents in the trade unions here turned to us to
the Germans, the Dutch, the Belgians, the Danes. But from none
of them did they get information about our congress: when where
and how-. Dispatching a delegation to a congress, no matter which
one, was the principal consideration for them, however, by way of
opposition to Broadhurst, Shipton & Co., and so they decided in
favor of the Congress that had been convoked.

i T i h n S T re l0Sing grOUnd here ste P hy ste P; our foothold in the
ocal Radical press was also becoming very shaky, and finally there
came the resolution of the Belgian congress: to send one delegate
to each congress. And even in the German party press Auer and
Schippel maintained that we had to go to the possibilists if only to
prove that we are not anti-French chauvinists. In short, I gave the
case up as lost, at least in England.

But I wrote at once to the Frenchmen (who had insisted from the
very start that the congress must be held on July 14-21 alongside the
possibihst one, or else it wouldn’t be worth the trouble) that the
Belgian resolution restored their freedom of action and that they
should now call the congress at once for this date. And Monsieur
Liebknecht, under whose own posterior the articles by Auer and
■Schippel had lighted a fire, suddenly discovered that he had delayed
ie matter ong enough and that he now had to act fast— he gave the
Frenchmen the same advice. The call was issued-the effect exceeded

sibiff 8 ui^ S ed P rH PhI R agai " St . ,hC Sodal Democrati c Federation and the pos-
mued under Bermtcin s name in connection with the proposed congress.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

215

all expectations; adherences poured in and are still coming. And
even here we have more than a succbs d'estime, and the publication
of the signatures is still producing an effect. Even here we have
everything outside the Social Democratic Federation (which has
fallen to a very low estate), and morally a part of those still belonging
to it. For John Burns, the Socialist County Councillor of London,
will probably break away together with the whole Battersea Branch
or has done so already. He and Parnell 1 (who signed our circular)
have already been elected as delegates to the possibihst congress
and will work for us there.

With the exception of the S. D. F., the possibilists haven’t a single
socialist organization in all Europe. They are therefore falling back
on the non-socialist trade unions and would give the world if they
could have even the old trade unions here, Broadhurst 8c Co., but
the latter were fed up here in London in November. They will get
one Knight of Labor from America.

The primary consideration in this connection— and this was the
reason why I put my shoulders to the wheel— is that it is again the
old split in the International that comes to light here, the old battle
of The Hague. The adversaries are the same, with the anarchist
flag merely exchanged for the possibilist one: the selling of principles
to the bourgeoisie for small-scale concessions, especially in return
for well-paid jobs for the leaders (city council, labor exchange, etc.).
And the tactics are exactly the same. The manifesto of the S. D. F.,
obviously written by Brousse, is a new T edition of the Sonvilliers
circular. 2 And Brousse knows it too; he continues to attack le Marx-
isms autoritaire [authoritarian Marxism] with the same lies and
slanders, and Hyndman is imitating him— his principal sources of
information about the International and the political activity of
Marx are the local malcontents of the General Council: Eccarius,
Jung and Co.

The alliance of the possibilists and the S. D. F. was to constitute
the nucleus of the new International that w ? as to be founded in
Paris: together with the Germans, if they fitted in as the third partner
in the union, otherwise against them. Hence the many little con-
gresses one after another, constantly growing in size; hence the ex-
clusiveness with which the allies treated all the other French and
English tendencies as nonexistent; and hence the intrigues, particu-
larly with the small nations, which also were Bakunin’s support. But

1 A London trade unionist, not the Irish nationalist leader.

* Prior to The Hague Congress in 1872 the Bakuninists and Alliancists held a
conference in Sonvilliers in the Jura region and issued a separatist, slanderous
circular against Marx and the General Council of the First International. Sec also

p. 111.

2l6

MARX AND ENGELS

this activity became sinister when the Germans, with their St. Gall
resolution, 1 also entered the congress movement, quite naively— in
absolute ignorance of what was going on elsewhere. And since these
little people would rather go against the Germans than with them-
for the latter were considered to be too Marxified— the struggle
became inevitable. But you have no idea of the Germans' nai’vet L
It has cost me endless effort to convince even Bebel of what it all
really means, although the possibilists know it very well and pro-
claim it every day. And with all these mistakes I had little hope that
things would end well, that immanent reason, which is gradually
evolving to consciousness of itself in this affair, would win out as
early as this. I am all the more pleased by the proof that affairs like
1873 and 1874 can't happen any more today. The intriguers are
beaten already, and the significance of the congress— whether it
draws the other one over to its side or not— lies in the fact that the
concord of the socialist parties of Europe is demonstrated to all the
world, with the few factionalists left out in the cold unless they
submit.

The congress is of little importance otherwise. I am not going
there, of course; I can't plunge into agitation over and over again.
But they now want to play at congresses again, and it is then pref-
erable that these congresses are not governed by Brousse and
Hyndman. There was just enough time to block them.

I am curious about the effect of Bernstein No. 2. 2 Let’s hope it’s
the last document in the affair.

As for the rest, things here are so-so. I have had to give up smoking
because of my nerves; it requires remarkably little self-restraint. I
smoke the contents of a third of a cigarette every two or three days,
but I think I shall start smoking again next year. Sam Moore is
going to the Niger region in Africa as a senior judge. He is sailing
next Saturday from Liverpool, returning for half a year in eighteen
months, and will translate Volume III [of Capital] while there.

Cordial regards to your wife.

Yours,

F. Engels

1 The congress of the Social-Democratic Party of Germany in St. Gall, Switzer-
land.

a The second pamphlet against the Social Democratic Federation and the pos-
sibilists issued under Bernstein’s name in connection with the proposed congress.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

217

ENGELS TO SORGE ,

London, July 17, 1089

Dear Sorge:

Our congress is in session and is a brilliant success; up to the day
before yesterday 358 delegates, with new ones still arriving. More
than half of them foreigners, including 81 Germans from all the
states and principalities and provinces with the exception of Posen.
The first hall was too small the very first day, the second hall on the
second day, and a third hall was sought. The sessions are entirely
open to the public-sole protection against police spies-at the
unanimous demand of the Germans, in spite of some French objec-
tions (they thought the possibilists would attract a bigger audience
in Paris, and it would therefore be better to meet in closed sessions).
The Sozialdemokrat will bring the attendance figures to America
by the next mail. Scottish and German miners are meeting there
for the first time in joint conference.

The possibilists have 80 foreigners (42 Britons, 15 of them from
the Social Democratic Federation, 17 from the trade unions), seven
from Austria (can’t be much more than a fake, the whole actual
movement there is with us), seven Spaniards, seven Italians (three
representatives of Italian societies abroad) , seven Belgians, four
Americans (two of them, Bowen and Georgii, from Washington,
D. C., came to see me), two Portuguese, one Swiss ( nommi par lui-
meme [nominated by himself]), and one Pole. Almost all of them
trade unionists. In addition, 477 Frenchmen, who represented only
136 Chambres Syndicates [trade-union chambers] and 77 cercles
d’ etudes socialistes [socialist study circles]. For each little clique can
send three delegates, whereas each of our 180 Frenchmen represents
a separate organization.

The amalgamation bubble is very powerful in both congresses,
of course; the foreigners want amalgamation, while the Frenchmen
are holding back in both camps. Amalgamation is quite good under
rational conditions, but the fraud consists in some of our people
shouting for amalgamation a tout prix [at any price].

I have just learned at the S. D. [editorial office of the Sozialdemo-
krat] that Liebknecht’s amalgamation motion has actually been
adopted by a large majority. What it signifies-whether it means a
real amalgamation on the basis of private negotiations, or mere y
an abstract desire that is supposed to lead to such an amalgamation,
can’t be made out from the letter unfortunately. German good
nature is above such details; nevertheless, the fact that the Frenc
are accepting it is sufficient guarantee for me that it involves no
disgrace at the hands of the possibilists. I shall be able to learn

2 1 8

MARX AND ENGELS

molt about it only after the mails close, probably only tomorrow

Moreover, you arc probably learning the essential facts as soon
as I do, since the Avclings have made arrangements for cabling with
the New York Herald man in Paris. Today I am sending you Satur
day’s Reynolds and the Monday Star-everything important that has
appeared in the local press up to now. More on Saturday.

In any event, the intrigue of the possibilists and the Social Demo-
cratic Federation to obtain the position of leadership in France and
England by stealth has miscarried completely, and their pretensions
to international leadership even more so. If the two parallel con-
gresses merely fulfilled the purpose of mustering forces-the pos
sibihsts and London factionalists in one hall, and the European
Socialists (who figure as Marxists, thanks to the former) in another
thus showing the world where the true movement is concentrated
and where the fraud-it suffices. Of course, the real amalgamation
if it occurs, won’t prevent the continuation of the squabbles in
England and France at all— quite the contrary. It will merely signify
an imposing demonstration for the great bourgeois public-a work-
ers congress more than 900 strong, from the tamest trade unions
to the most revolutionary Communists. And it will once for all block
the cliques for the next congresses, for this time they have seen
where the real power lies: that we are a match for them in France
and more than a match for them all over on the Continent, and
that their position in England is becoming very shaky.

Yours,

F. K.

ENGELS TO SORGE

DearSorge: July 20 ’ 1889

' ’ ’ 1 ^ reconciliation bubble in Paris has burst. How lucky that

, 'L P ° SS ! M 1StS and thC S ' D ' F- ’ reco £ nizin g their true position,
preferred to give our people a kick, which puts an end to the fraud.
. he affair had been prepared de longue main [long ago], as is proved
J a num )u 0 nlaneu vers and utterances of these gentlemen during
le past two months, which now are more understandable. It is the
o d Bakun, mst slander of the Hague Congress, etc.,' as if we had
°P er ! 1 ted Wlth fa,se credentials. This slander, continually
t | 1S C Jy rousse ever since 1883, had to serve them again as soon
they saw that they were being deserted by all Socialists and could
1 See p. 215 .

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 219

be saved only by the trade unions. What their credentials are like
will probably be revealed during the furious polemic that has now
broken out.

Unfortunately, this old rubbish, which didn’t draw even in 1873,
doesn’t draw today at all; but something had to be found to cover
up the tremendous fiasco that the gentlemen suffered. But it serves
our sentimental conciliatory brethren right, to get this stiff kick in
their tenderest spot for all their protestations of friendship. That
will probably cure them for some time to come. . . .

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, October 12, 1889

Dear Sorge:

The Labour Elector and Commonweal enclosed herewith as usual.
The International Review is said to have died already; that’s how
quickly Hyndman ran it into the ground. On the other hand, Bax
is negotiating with another review; if he gets it, Aveling will prob-
ably be his associate editor. The New Yorker revolution is growing
funnier and funnier — the efforts of Rosenberg and Co. to stay at
the top a tout prix [at any price] are amusing but, fortunately,
useless too. Your correspondence with the Nationalists 1 in the W.A.
[Workman’s Advocate] pleased me, first because one recognized old
Sorge ten miles away, and second because it is a public sign of life
again from you. . . .

Yours,

F. E.

x The followers of Edward Bellamy in the United States. In 1887 Bellamy had
published his social-utopian novel, Looking Backward 2000-1887, which won him
worldwide renown. The novel was written under the influence of Bebel’s Woman
and Socialism, but all of Bellamy’s reasoning and plans are bourgeois intellectual
fantasies. Bellamy Clubs were formed in many cities, their name being changed
to Nationalist Clubs in 1888. These clubs united to form the Nationalist Party.
Bellamy defined “nationalism” as the nationalization of industry and trade. The
Nationalist Party played only a minor part in American politics. Sorge was then
engaged in a controversy with Daniel De Leon in the columns of the Nationalist
organ.

220

MARX AND ENGELS

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, December 7, 1889

Dear Sorge:

. . . Things won't turn out that well: to have the “Socialist Labor
Party" liquidated. Rosenberg has a lot of other heirs beside Sche-
witsch, and the conceited doctrinaire Germans over there certainly
have no desire to give up their usurped position of teachers to the
“immature" Americans. Otherwise they would be nothing at all.

Over here it is being proved that a great nation simply cannot be
tutored in a doctrinaire and dogmatic fashion, even if one has the
best of theories, evolved out of their own conditions of life, and
even if the tutors are relatively better than the S.L.P. The movement
is under way now at last and, I believe, for good. But not directly
Socialist, and those among the English who have understood our
theory best remain outside it: Hyndman because he is incurably
jealous and intriguing, Bax because he is a bookworm. Formally, the
movement is first of all a trade-union movement, but utterly differ-
ent from that of the old trade unions: the skilled laborers, the labor
aristocracy.

The people are now putting their shoulders to the wheel in quite
a different way, they are drawing far greater masses into the struggle,
shaking up society far more profoundly, and putting forward much
more far-reaching demands: the eight-hour day, a general federation
of all organizations, and complete solidarity. Through Tussy, the
Gas-Workers' and General Laborers' Union has gotten women's
branches for the first time. Moreover, the people look on their
immediate demands themselves as only provisional, although they
themselves do not yet know toward what final goal they are working.
But this vague idea is strongly enough rooted in them to make
them elect as leaders only openly declared Socialists. Like everyone
else, they must learn from their own experiences by drawing the
conclusions from their own mistakes. But since, unlike the old trade
unions, they greet every suggestion of the identity of interest between
capital and labor with scornful laughter, this will not take very
long. I hope that the next general elections take another three
years in coming: (1) so that Gladstone, Russia's servant, does not
come to the helm during the period of the worst danger of war-
which would be sufficient in itself for the Tsar to provoke the war;
(2) so that the anti-conservative majority will be so big that real
Home Rule for Ireland becomes a necessity; otherwise Gladstone
will bilk the Irish again, and this obstacle — the Irish question -
will not be removed; and (3) so that the labor movement develops
still further and possibly will mature even faster by the reaction

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

221

of the depression which is certain to come after the present pros-
perity. Then the next Parliament may have 20-40 labor representa-
tives, and of a different stamp than Potter, Cremer and Co.

The most repulsive thing here is the bourgeois “respectability"
that has sunk deep into the bone of the workers. The division of
society into innumerable strata, each recognized without question,
each with its own pride but also its inborn respect for its “betters"
and “superiors," is so old and firmly established that the bourgeois
still find it fairly easy to have their bait accepted. I am not at all
sure, for instance, that John Burns is not secretly prouder of his
popularity with Cardinal Manning, the Lord Mayor, and the
bourgeoisie in general than of his popularity with his own class.
And Champion - an ex-lieutenant - has always intrigued with
bourgeois and especially with conservative elements, preached so-
cialism at the parsons' Church Congress, etc. And even Tom Mann,
whom I regard as the best of the lot, likes to mention that he will
be lunching with the Lord Mayor. If one compares this with the
French, one realizes what a revolution is good for after all. However,
it will not help the bourgeoisie much if they do succeed in luring
some of the leaders into their toils. By that time the movement will
have grown strong enough for this sort of thing to be overcome. . . .

Time has now been purchased by Bax, and I think everything has
also been arranged with the Avelings. It depends, however, on what
Bax turns it into. With all his talent and all his good intentions
Bax is unpredictable - a bookworm who has gone into journalism
and has lost his balance somewhat in doing it. Besides, there is his
peculiar obsession that today women are oppressing men.

Your list of Marx's Tribune articles 1 is buried, no doubt, under
the mountain of unsorted letters. I have the pasted and mounted
Tribune articles, but I cannot say at present whether they are
complete or not. I found them again only last autumn. ...

Things are going splendidly in Germany. Little Wilhelm is an
even better agitator than Bismarck; the Ruhr coal miners are
assured to us, the Saar miners are following suit, and the Elbert eld
trial is also helping with its police-spy revelations. 2 In France our

1 in 1872 Marx got from Sorge a complete list of the articles that Marx and
Engels had written for the New York Tribune from 1852 to .859. The amdes 1 were
sent to Marx in 1877 and later published in two books: Germany.-
Counter-Revolution (written by Engels), and The Eastern Quest, on (written by

•In the Elberfeld trial, which began on November 18, 1889, the defendants
(including August Rebel) were accused of having organized a secret society and
having distributed i.legal literature. The ^lasted *c
the defendants were acquitted, including Bebel, while the rest received j
sentences ranging from fourteen days to six months.

222

MARX AND ENGELS

parliamentary fraction now has eight members, five of them dele-
gates to the Paris Marxist Congress. Guesdc is their secretary and
works out their speeches for them. There are prospects for a daily
paper again. The fraction will introduce the congress resolutions as
a motion. Work is going on everywhere for the First of May, 1889. 1
Things are going ahead very well in Austria, too. Adler put affairs
in shape splendidly; the anarchists are dead there. . . .

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SCHLUETER

London, January 11, 1890

Dear Schluter:

. . . The stonny tide of last summer’s movement has somewhat
abated. And the best of it is that the unthinking sympathy of the
bourgeois gang for the workers’ movement, as displayed in the
dockers’ strike, has also abated and is beginning to make way for
the far more natural feeling of distrust and apprehension. In the
South London gas strike, which was forced upon the workers by
die gas company, the workers are again wholly deserted by all the
philistines. This is very good, and I only hope Burns will go through
this experience himself sometime, in a strike led by himself -he
cherishes all sorts of illusions in that respect.

Meanwhile there is friction of all kinds, between the gas workers
and the dockers, for instance, as was only to be expected. But
despite all this, the masses are on the move and there is no holding
them back any more. The longer the stream is dammed up, the more
violent will the break be when it comes. And these unskilled are
very different chaps from the fossilized brothers of the old trade
unions; not a trace of the old pettifogging spirit, of the craft exclu-
siveness of the engineers, for instance; on the contrary, there is a
general cry for the organization of all trade unions into one brother-
hood and for a direct struggle against capital. In the dockers’ strike,
for instance, there were three engineers at the Commercial Docks
who kept the steam engine going. Burns and Mann — both are
engineers themselves and Burns is a member of the Executive of
the Amalgamated Engineers Trades Union — were summoned to
persuade these men to leave, as then none of the cranes could have
worked and the dock company would have had to give in. The three
engineers refused, the Engineers’ Executive did not step in, and

1 A slip of the pen; Engels meant May 1, 1890.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

223

hence the length of the strike! Further, at the Silvertown Rubber
Works — twelve-weeks’ strike — the strike failed because of the en-
gineers, who did not join in and even did laborers* work against
their own union rules! And why? “In order to keep the supply of
laborers low,’’ these fools have a rule that only those who have gone
through a regular period of apprenticeship are admitted to their
union. By this means they have created an army of competitors,
so-called blacklegs, who are just as skilled as they are themselves and
who would gladly join the union, but who are forced to remain
blacklegs because they are kept outside by this pedantry, which has
no sense at all nowadays. And because they know that these black-
legs would have stepped into their places immediately, both in the
Commercial Docks and in Silvertown, they stayed in and so became
blacklegs themselves against the strikers. There you see the dif-
ference: the new unions stick together; in the present gas strike,
sailors, steamer’s firemen, lightermen, coal carters, etc., are all
standing together, but of course not the engineers; they keep on
working!

Yet these boastful old big trade unions will soon be made to
look small; their chief support, the London Trades Council, is
being more and more subjugated by the new ones, and in two or
three years at most the Trade Union Congress will also be revolu-
tionized. Even at the next congress the Broadhursts will get the
shock of their lives.

The fact that you have got rid of Rosenberg and Co. is the main
point about the revolution in your American socialist teapot. The
German party over there must be smashed, as such; it is becoming
the worst obstacle. The American workers are coming along all right,
but just like the English they go their own way. One cannot drum
theory into them beforehand, but their own experience and their
own blunders and the resulting evil consequences will bump their
noses up against theory — and then all right. Independent peoples
go their own way, and the English and their offspring are surely
the most independent of them all. Insular stiff-necked obstinacy
annoys one often enough, but it also guarantees that what is begun
will be carried out once a thing gets started. . . .

Cordial regards to your wife and yourself from Nim and your

F. Engels

224 MARX AND ENGELS

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, February 8, 1800

Dear Sorge:

Your letter of the 14th and two postcards concerning H. Schluter
received.

In my opinion, we hardly lose anything worth mentioning by the
defection of the official Socialists over there to the Nationalists. 1
If the whole German Socialist Labor Party went to pieces as a result
it would be a gain, but we can hardly expect anything as good as
that. The really useful elements will finally come together again all
the same, and the sooner the dross has separated itself, the sooner
this will happen; when the moment comes at which events them-
selves drive the American proletariat farther on, there will be
enough of them fitted by their superior theoretical insight and
experience to take over the role of leaders, and then you will find
that your years of work have not been for nothing.

The movement there, just like the one here and in the coal regions
of Germany now as well, cannot be created by preaching alone. Facts
must drum it into people’s heads, but then it will go really fast,
fastest, of course, where an organized and theoretically educated
section of the proletariat already exists, as in Germany. The coal
miners are ours today potentially and of necessity: in the Ruhr the
process is proceeding rapidly; the Aachen and Saar basins will
follow, then Saxony, then Lower Silesia, finally the Poles of Upper
Silesia. With the position of our party in Germany, merely the
impulse arising from the coal miners’ own living conditions was suffi
cient to call forth an irresistible movement.

Here, things are going the same way. The movement, which I
now consider irrepressible, arose from the dock strike, purely out
of the absolute necessity of defense. But here too the ground had
been so far prepared by the various forms of agitation in the last
eight years that the people, without being Socialists themselves,
still wanted to have only Socialists as their leaders. Now, without
noticing it themselves, they are approaching the theoretically right
track; they drift into it, and the movement is so strong that I believe
it will survive the inevitable blunders and their consequences and
the friction between the various trade unions and the leaders without
serious damage. More of that below.

I think it will be the same with you in America, too. The Schleswig-
Holsteiners and their descendants in England and America are not
to be converted by lecturing; this pigheaded and conceited lot

1 See foonote, p. 219 .

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

225

must experience it in their own persons. And this they are doing
more and more from year to year, but they are most conservative —
just because America is so purely bourgeois, has no feudal past at all,
and is therefore proud of its purely bourgeois organization — and
so they will get rid of the old traditional mental rubbish only
through practical experience. Hence it must begin with the trade
unions, etc., if it is to be a mass movement, and every further step
must be forced upon them by a setback. But once the first step
beyond the bourgeois point of view has been taken, things will move
quickly, like everything in America, where the velocity of the
movement, growing with natural necessity, is setting some requisite
fire underneath the Schleswig-Holstein Anglo-Saxons, ordinarily so
slow; and then, too, the foreign elements in the nation will assert
themselves by greater mobility. I consider the decay of the specifically
German party, with its ridiculous theoretical confusion, its corre-
sponding arrogance, and its Lassalleanism, a real piece of good
fortune. Only when these separatists are out of the way, will the
fruits of your work come to light again. The Socialist Law was
a misfortune, not for Germany, but for America, to which it con-
signed the last of the louts. When I was over there, I often marveled
at the many loutish faces one encountered, faces which died out in
Germany, but are flourishing over there.

Well, there is another storm in a teacup over here. You will have
read the squabbles in the Labour Elector over Parker, the associate
editor of the Star, who in a local paper, forthrightly charged Lord
Euston with pederasty in connection with the bugger scandals
among the aristocracy here. The article was infamous, but it was
merely personal; the matter was scarcely political. But it caused
considerable scandal; the Star picked it up, provoked Bums directly,
and Bums, instead of conferring with the committee, disavowed
Champion directly in the Star. There was a tremendous storm in
the Labour Elector committee, all against Champion, but each of
them wants to get into Parliament and hence has separate interests.
So nothing was decided, perhaps because they had no power. (Cham-
pion had told Tussy last fall that the paper belongs to the com-
mittee and he is merely a dismissable editor, but that was hardly
altogether the case.) In short. Bums and Bateman resigned from the
committee because of this affair. Bums, in particular, also because of
the chauvinist article on the Portuguese squabble, 1 and this week the
whole committee has vanished from the pages of the paper. Nosv

1 A clash between the British and the Portuguese on the Zambesi River after
Portuguese troops had been sent to Africa at the beginning of 1890.

226

MARX AND ENGELS

Tussy has written off Champion also, whom she used to give inter-
national notes on France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, and Scandi-
navia. (The absurd stuff on Spain, Portugal, Mexico, etc., was written
by Cunninghame Graham, a very honest, very courageous, but very
muddled ex-ranchman.)

Now, the case proves to me that Champion actually took Torv
money and then was in the embarrassing situation of having to do
something for value received at the opening of Parliament. The
author of the article itself is supposed to be Maltman Barry, our
ex-friend of The Hague, who is considered to be a Tory agent here,
and about whom Jung, Hyndman and Co. tell amazing but false
cock-and-bull stories. But all these gentlemen are acting foolishly,
for Champion is ruining himself completely with this, and in a
meeting of his own Labor Electoral Association he was shouted
down from the platform and had to be protected by two policemen.
This, of course, is splendid grist for Hyndman’s mill, but I think
both of these gentlemen are done for. We shall see how matters go
from here. But the movement will perish as little for this reason
as it did because of the defeat of the gas stokers in South London.
The people were too cocky, everything had been made too easy
for them; a few setbacks cannot do any harm now.

In Paris our people are still trying to establish a daily. The
possibilist Parti ouvrier, a daily subsidized by the government, has
succumbed; on n y a plus besoin de ces messieurs [these gentlemen
are not needed any more].

Bax's Time is quite an ordinary bourgeois affair, and he is
mortally afraid of making it socialistic. Now, this won’t go on
like that without further ado, but there is still no place here for a
purely socialist monthly, especially at 1 sh. per number. Whenever
there is something interesting in it, I’ll send it to you.

We have our Nationalists here too: the Fabians, a well-meaning
lot of “eddicated” bourgeois, who have refuted Marx with the
rotten vulgarized economics of Jevons, which is so vulgarized that
one can make anything out of it, even socialism. As over there,
their chief aim is to convert the bourgeois to socialism and thus
introduce the thing peacefully and constitutionally. They have
published a bulky book about it, written by seven authors. 1

I hope your health is still good and that habit is making work
easier for you. . . .

Yours,

F. E.

1 Fabian Essays iti Socialism, edited by George Bernard Shaw, London, 1889.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

227

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, April 12, 1890

Dear Sorge:

Thanks for your letters of March 3rd-6th.

The matter of Miquel’s letters 1 involves great difficulties. “Wil-
helm” [Wilhelm Liebknecht] also would have liked to have them,
in order to blurt them out at an inopportune time, thus perma-
nently spoiling our means of exerting pressure on Miquel. For once
the scandal is over, Miquel will snap his fingers at us. But it is of
much greater value to me to have the fellow somewhat under the
thumb through this means of pressure than to make a useless clamor,
as a result of which he would be released and would be glad, to
boot, that he had weathered it. What is more, the whole world knows
that he was a member of the League.

I have had altogether too brilliant experiences with American
journalism to bite at this chance. If it became known at the Volks-
zeitung that these letters were in America, those sensationalists would
not rest until they had them -and I don’t want to expose anyone
to this temptation and torture. Moreover, what guarantee have I
how long Schluter remains with the Volkszeitung and whether they
don’t make the release of these letters the condition for his staying?

In short, it is impossible for me to enter this deal.

In Germany everything is proceeding better than one’s wildest
desires. Young Wilhelm is positively crazy; hence born, as it were, to
put the old system thoroughly in disorder, to shatter the last remnant
of confidence among all the possessing classes - Junkers as well as
bourgeois — and to prepare the ground for us as even the liberal
Friedrich III could not have. His desires for a friendly attitude to the
workers — purely Bonapartist-demagogic, but mingled with con-
fused dreams of the heaven-inspired mission of a prince - fail quite
irretrievably with our people. The Socialist Law saw to that, n
1878 something could still have been accomplished by it, some
disorder caused in our ranks, but now that is impossible.

Our people have had to feel the Prussian fist too much. A few
weaklings, such as Herr Bios, and then some of the 700,000 m ^ n
who have newly joined us in the last three years may be a bit shaky
in this respect, but they will be quickly outvoted, and before the
year is out we shall have the prettiest disappointment on Wilhelms
part regarding his power over the workers. W'lth that love will turn

1 Engels had been requested to send Johannes Miquel s letters to Marx to
America for publication when the opportunity should present itself.

228 MARX AND ENGELS

to rage, and caresses to persecution. Hence our policy is to avoid
all clamor until the Socialist Law expires on September 30th, for
it will probably not be feasible to set up a new state of emergency
with the Reichstag then completely scattered. And once we have
the ordinary civil liberties again, you will witness a new expansion
that will even overshadow the one that came to light on Febru-
ary 20th. 1

As little Wilhelm's friendliness towards the workers is comple-
mented by hankerings for a military dictatorship (you see how the
whole gang of princes becomes Bonapartist nolens volens [willy-
nilly] nowadays) , and he wants to have everyone shot down at the
slightest resistance, we must see to it that he gets no opportunity
to do so. We saw in the elections that our progress in the rural
areas was quite enormous, especially where there are large estates
and for the most part rich peasants, that is, in the East. Three
runoff ballots in Mecklenburg, two in Pomerania! The 85,000
votes that were added between the first official count (1,342,000)
and the second (1,427,000) were all from rural districts, where
they had not expected us to get a single vote. So the prospect is
that we shall soon win the agricultural proletariat of the eastern
provinces, and with it the soldiers of the Prussian “£lite regi-
ments." Then the whole old order is done for, and we rule. But
the Prussian generals would have to be greater jackasses than I
can believe, not to know it just as well as we do, and so they must
be burning with eagerness to put us out of action for some time
to come by means of a ceremonious massacre. So there is a twofold
reason to keep outwardly quiet.

A third reason is that the election victory has gone to the head of
the masses, particularly the new recruits, and they think they now
can force everything through by assault. If this is not curbed, a lot
of blunders will be made. And the bourgeois — vide [see] the coal-
mine owners — are making every effort to promote and provoke these
blunders, and, besides the old reasons for doing so, they have the
new ones: that they thus hope to foil little Wilhelm's "friendliness to
workers."

Please do not communicate the passages marked in the margin
above to Schliiter. He has a certain eagerness for action, and then
I know the Volkszeitung people, who are ruthless in their journalistic
wasting of everything that is usable. But these things may not be
put in the press, neither over there nor here, at least not in the
German press, and least of all as coming from me.

1 Date of the Reichstag elections, when Bismarck was defeated.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

229

So if our party apparently adopts a somewhat peaceful attitude in
Germany in the near future and in respect to May First as well, you
know the reasons. We know that the generals would very much like
to exploit the First of May for shooting. The same intentions exist
in Vienna and in Paris.

In the Arbeiter-Zeitung (Vienna) Bebel’s correspondence from
Germany is of special importance. I make no decision on any point
relating to German party tactics before reading Bebel’s opinion
on it in the A.Z. or in letters. He has a marvelously keen scent. It is
a pity that he knows only Germany from his own observation. This
week’s article “Germany without Bismarck” is also by him.

You will have received Time with my first article on Russian poli-
tics (sent off a week ago)

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, April 19, 1890

Dear Sorge: , , , .

I get the Nationalist regularly; unfortunately there is not much in
it They are a feeble imitation of the Fabians 1 here. Superficial and
shallow as the Dismal Swamp, but full of conceit regarding the
lofty generosity with which they, the “eddicated” bourgeois, con-
descend to emancipate the workers, in return for which the latter
must politely keep quiet and must submissively obey the oniers ot
the “eddicated” cranks and their isms. Let them have their brief
pleasures; one fine day the movement will wipe all that out. An
advantage we Continentals have, who have felt the influence of the
French Revolution in an altogether different fashion, is that such a

U Today I Lmako sending you The People’s Press , which has taken
the place of the Labour Elector as far as reports of the new trade
unions are concerned. As you will have noticed, e atte ^
nothing factual any more because the workers simply won t have
anything to do with it any longer. Which doesn’t prevent Bums.
Mann, and others (particularly among the dockers) from sti asso-

»The Fabian Society was founded in 1 884 *1 * n ^weblT^nd U o*eTfW tish
tion by George Bernard Shaw, Beatrice and Sid ley > •vradualism,”

23 °

MARX AND ENGELS

ciating closely with Champion on the sly and letting themselves be
influenced by him. The People’s Press is edited by a very vouno
Fabian Dell; the second in command is the priest Morris ^oth
are said to be decent fellows so far, and are very obliging towards the
gas workers. 1 ussy is the leader of the gas workers (on the sly) and
the union seems, at any rate, to be the best of them by far. The
dockers are spoiled by philistine assistance and do not want to fall
out with the bourgeois public. Moreover, their secretary, Tillett is
the mortal enemy of the gas workers, whose secretary he tried’ to
become in vam. The dockers and gas workers really belong together
tie) arc a single mass, dockers in summer, gas workers in winter
Hence the latter proposed a cartel to the effect that anyone who is a
member of either union be not compelled to join the other upon
changing his job. The dockers have rejected this up to now, demand-
ing that the gas worker who becomes a docker in the spring also
pay them an initiation fee and membership dues. Hence much
unpleasantness. In general, the dockers stand for a lot from their
Ilxecunve. The Gas-Workers and General Laborers accept all the
unskilled, and in Ireland the agricultural day laborers are also
joining - hence the discontent of Davitt, who does not go beyond
Henry George and feels that his local Irish policy is threatened here,
hough quite without reason. Here in London the gas workers have
been soundly beaten south of the Thames by the South Metropolitan

2 f , ; ™ at w f* vei 7 S ood; ^ey were becoming too exuberant
and felt they could win everything by assault. The same thing hap-
pene to t 'era in Manchester. Now they are growing quieter; they
are first consolidating the oiganization and filling the treasury. In
he union Tussy represents the women and girls of Silvertown
( n la Rubber, etc. Works), whose strike she led, and she will doubt-
less take her seat in the London Trades Council very shortly.

In a country with such an old political and labor movement there
is a ways a colossal heap of traditionally transmitted rubbish which
has to be got rid of by degrees. There are the prejudices of the
s died unions - Engineers, Bricklayers, Carpenters and Joiners, Type
ompositors, etc. -all of which have to be broken down; the petty
)< a ousies of the various trades, which become accentuated in the
ands and heads of the leaders into outright hostility and battles
behind the scenes; there are the clashing ambitions and intrigues of
ic ea crs. one wants to get into Parliament and so does someone
else, another wants to get on the County Council or School Board,
another wants to establish a general centralization of all the worken,
another to start a paper, another a club, etc., etc. In short, there is
friction upon friction. Among them the Socialist League, which looks

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

231

down on everything that is not directly revolutionary (which, here in
England, as with you, means: everything which does not confine itself
to coining phrases and otherwise doing nothing); and the Federation,
which still behaves as if everyone but itself were an ass and a bungler,
although it is only the new progress of the movement that has
enabled it itself to get some following again. In short, anyone who
sees only the surface would say it was all confusion and personal
squabbles. But under the surface the movement is going on; it is
seizing ever wider sections, and for the most part precisely among the
hitherto stagnant lowest masses; and the day is no longer far off when
this mass will suddenly find itself, when it dawns upon it that
it is this colossal moving mass; and when that day comes short work
will be made of all the rascality and squabbling.

The foregoing details concerning persons and momentary dis-
sensions are solely for your information, of course, and must not get
into the Volkszeitung at any cost. This once for all — for I have
already had instances here of the fact that Schliiter sometimes takes
things a bit too lightly in this respect.

I am curious about the First of May. In Germany it w’as the duty
of the Reichstag fraction to combat the exaggerated hankerings.
The bourgeois, the political police (for whom it is now ,4 a matter of
jobs”), and Messrs, officers - all of them would gladly like to lay
about them and to shoot, and they are seeking any pretext to
prove to Young Wilhelm that he can’t let them shoot quickly enough.
But that would spoil our whole game. First w r e must be rid of the
Socialist Law, that is, we must have survived the 30th of September.
And then, things are moving altogether too splendidly for us in
Germany to have us spoil them by pure braggadocio. Moreover,
the fraction’s proclamation is bad — it was written by Liebknecht —
and the nonsense of a “general strike” wholly superfluous. But no
matter how, the people are so elated over the 20th of February that
they require a certain curb in order not to make any blunders.

In France the First of May may become a turning point, at least
for Paris, if it helps to bring the large mass of workers who have
gone over to Boulangism 1 to their senses. Our people have them-
selves to thank for that. They never had the courage to oppose the
outcry against the Germans, as Germans, and now they are being
defeated by chauvinism in Paris. Fortunately things are better in
the provinces. But abroad all they see is Paris.

If the Frenchmen sent me their things, I would send them to you.

1 A movement headed by General George Boulanger, the French “Man on
Horseback/* for the overthrow of the Third Republic and the establishment
of a military regime.

232

MARX AND ENGELS

But I think they are ashamed of them themselves. Well, it’s in the
French nature, they can’t bear any defeats. As soon as they see a bit
of success again, it will suddenly be different. . . .

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, November k, 1800

Dear Sorge:

Today I have mournful tidings for you. My good faithful dear
Lenchen passed away quietly yesterday afternoon after a brief and,
for the most part, painful illness. We had lived seven happy years
together in this house. We were the last two of the pre-1848 old
guard. Now I am alone again. If Marx, for many years, and I, for
the last seven years, found the quiet required for work, it was largely
her doing. I don’t know what will become of me now. And I shall
sadly miss her wonderfully tactful advice on party affairs. Give my
cordial regards to your wife and tell the Schluters.

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SCHLUETER

London, January 29, 1891

Dear Schliiter:

. . . Unfortunately I cannot accept Sorge’s invitation. 1 I am
rooted with so many fibers here in Europe and have so infinitely
much to do that a retreat to America can be considered only in the
most extremely desperate situation. Moreover, my household is
fully in order again ever since Louise Kautsky is with me.

Many thanks for the calendar.

The articles in the Cyclopedia 2 are partly by Marx and partly by
me and are entirely or almost entirely on military subjects: biog-
raphies of military leaders, the articles “Artillery/’ “Cavalry,” “Forti-
fication, etc. Purely commercial work, nothing else; they can safely
remain buried.

1 Sorge had invited Engels to come to live with him in America after the
death of Helene Dcmuth (Lenchen), Engels' friend and housekeeper.

2 The New American Cyclopedia, A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge,

16 vols. (New York, 1858-1863), edited by George Ripley and Charles Anderson

Dana.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

233

I see clearly enough that things are going downhill with the S.L.P.
from its fraternization with the Nationalists, 1 compared to whom
the Fabians here — likewise bourgeois — are radicals. I should have
thought that the Sozialist would scarcely be able to beget extra
boredom by cohabiting with the Nationalist . Sorge sends me the
Nationalist, but despite all my efforts I cannot find anyone who is
willing to read it.

Nor do I understand the quarrel with Gompers. 2 His Federation
is, as far as I know, an association of trade unions and nothing but
trade unions. Hence they have the formal right to reject anyone
coming as the representative of a labor organization that is not a
trade union, or to reject delegates of an association to which such
organizations are admitted. I cannot judge from here, of course,
whether it was propagandistically advisable to expose oneself to such
a rejection. But it was beyond question that it had to come, and I,
for one, cannot blame Gompers for it.

But when I think of next year’s international congress in Brussels, 3
I should have thought it would have been well to keep on good
terms with Gompers, who has more workers behind him, at any
rate, than the S.L.P., and to ensure as big a delegation from America
as possible there, including his people. They would see many things
there that would disconcert them in their narrow-minded trade-
union standpoint — and besides, where do you want to find a
recruiting ground if not in the trade unions?

Many thanks for the silver material. If you could find something
for me containing material on the present silver production of the
U.S., I should be grateful. The European double-standard - currency
- jackasses are merely dupes of the American silver producers and are
quite ready to pull the latter’s chestnuts out of the fire for them. To
no avail, alas — nothing will come of the bubble. See my footnote on
the precious metals in the fourth edition of Capital . 4

Please give me fuller details of that speech by Marx on protective
tariffs. 5 I recall merely that when debate grew slack in the Brussels
German Workers Society, Marx and I agreed to stage a sham debate
in which he defended free trade and I protective tariffs, and I still

x The National Citizens Alliance, a short-lived middle-class political group,
collaborating with the Knights of Labor for the formation of a third political
party.

* The A. F. of L. had refused a charter to the New York Central Labor Feder-
ation on the ground that a section of the Socialist Labor Party was affiliated to it.

3 The second congress of the Second International was held in Brussels, August
16-22, 1891.

4 See Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. I, International Publishers, pp. 119-2O, «. 1.

“See footnote, p. 197.

234

MARX AND ENGELS

see the astounded faces of the people when they saw the two of us
suddenly attacking each other. It is possible that this speech was
printed in the Deutsche Briisseler Zeitung. I can’t recall any other
one.

You will probably be unable to come to Germany for the first
year or two. Tauscher has been released, to be sure, but only because
there was no evidence against him. It was disclosed, on the other
hand, that the provisions of the statute of limitations have been
regularly interrupted for the rest of you. . . .* Your

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, June 10, 1891

Dear Sorge:

. . . The movement here is getting along very well. The Gas
Workers and General Laborers Union is taking first place here more
and more, thanks to Tussy especially. The movement is proceeding
in an English fashion - systematically, step by step, but surely -
and the comical phenomenon that here, as in America, the people
who claim to be the orthodox Marxists, who have transformed our
concept of movement into a rigid dogma to be learned by heart,
appear as a pure sect, is very significant. What is more, that over
there these people are foreigners, Germans, while over here they
are true-blue Englishmen, Hyndman and his set. . . .

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

Ryde, Isle of Wight, August 9-11, 1891

Dear Sorge:

... I am very grateful for the information regarding the Journal
of the Knights of Labor - 1 have to look through such a pile of
papers that it is often very hard for me to get my bearings without
such reports. Likewise, regarding Gompers and Sanial; 2 very im-
portant, should I see them in London? . . .

* Schluter was still under prison sentence in contumaciam in Germany for
alleged violation of the Anti -Socialist Law.

* Sorge had informed Engels in a letter dated July 14, 1891, of the enmity
between Sanial (delegate of the Socialist Labor Party to the Brussels Congress ot
the Second International) and Gompers (delegate of the American Federation
of Labor) . Sorge had expressed the fear that Gompers would exploit this teua
at the Congress for his own political ends.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

235

Tussy, Aveling, Thorne, and others of the Gas Workers, Sanders
Hohn Burns’s secretary), and several other Englishmen of our side
are going to Brussels. I don’t know as yet how matters stand with
the old trade unions.

The dockers are on the verge of collapse. Their strike was won
solely as a result of the £30,000 blindly contributed from Australia;
but they think they did it themselves. Hence they are making one
mistake after another -the last one was closing their lists, not
accepting any more new members, and so breeding their own scabs.
Then they refused to conclude a cartel with the gas workers. Many
workers are dockers in summer, and gas workers in 1 winter; the gas
workers proposed that the ticket of one union should hold good for
both with this alternating employment - rejectedl Up to now t le
gas workers have respected the dockers’ ticket nevertheless - one
can’t say how much longer. Then the dockers are raismg an outcry
against the immigration of foreign paupers (Russian J ews )- of the
leaders, Tom Mann is upright but boundlessly weak, and he h
been made half-crazy by his appointment as a member of the Royal
Commission on Labor; Ben Tillett is an ambitious intriguer They
have no money, their members are dropping out in droves, and

discipline has vanished. ,

They wrote me from St. Petersburg a week ago. .... .

eve of a famine.” This was confirmed yesterday by the prohibits
of grain export from Russia. First of all. that assure 1 us peace ^fora
year; with a famine in the country the tsar will probably
aber but not start an attack. BUT if Gladstone ^ e * thehe ^ her ^
next year, which is likely, an effort will be made j
and France to allow the Dardanelles to be closed to al fleeu. even
war, which means forbidding the Sultan to get aul against the
Russians. So that is the next stage of the Eastern ^ s “om

Second, however, prohibiting Russian gram exports means the

cover the enormous rye deficit in Germa f and

the complete collapse of the gram-tariff policy » Geraw* and

that involves an incalculable series o po 1 1 its protective

example, the latifundian nobility will not * elmqins P to

tariffs without causing the industrial tariffs of *e ^urgeome^^

totter The protective-tariff parties will lose p . 0 ,
tottu. 1 1 . . our Party will grow enormously. This

whole situation will shift. And om pa y & .

crop failure will put us five years ahead, aside from the fact that

prevents a war. which would cost a hundred

In my opinion these two considerations will dominate Europea
politics for the present, and if Schluter wants to point this out

MARX AND ENGELS

236

the V olkszeitung, it would be very useful. As soon as the Congress
is over, I shall also broach it in the European press. But I cannot
be responsible, of course, for what other people do with these
reports. . . .

August 11th. The prohibition of grain export from Russia is not
official as yet, but certain none the less; one should await the official
proclamation. . . .

There were two Reichstag elections in East Prussia — an enormous
increase in our vote. So the rural districts are opened up at last —
cela marche! [things are on the march!] Well, with the rise in the
cost of living we may live to see something by 1900, if we don’t pass
out before then. . . .

Your old

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

Helensburgh, Scotland, September 14, 1891

Dear Sorge:

. . . The Trade Union Congress in Newcastle is also a victory. The
old unions, headed by the textile workers, and the whole party of
reaction among the workers, had exerted all their strength to over-
throw the eight-hour resolution of 1890. They failed, and have
won only a very small temporary concession. That is decisive. The
confusion is still great, but the affair is irresistibly on the move, and
the bourgeois papers recognize the defeat of the bourgeois labor
party completely and with terror, howling, and gnashing of teeth.
The Scottish Liberals especially, these most intelligent and most
classic bourgeois in the kingdom, are unanimous in their outcry at
the great misfortune and the hopeless perversity of the workers. . . .

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, October 24, 1891

Dear Sorge;

. . . For heaven’s sake do me the favor of not sending me any Ameri-
can monthly regularly. I long for the opportunity of reading a book
once again; though I am able to look through properly only one-third

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

237

of the papers sent me, they take all my time - but the movement is
gigantic by now and one must remain au courant [well-informed]!

Send me however , .. - 1 .

I can well believe that the movement over there is ebbing again.
Over there everything proceeds with great ups and downs. But
every up wins ground conclusively, and so one advances after all.
Thus the tremendous strike wave of the Knights of Labor and the
1886-1888 strike movement has put us ahead despite all the recoi s.
For there is an altogether different life in the masses than before.
The next time even more ground will be won. But with all that the
native American workingman’s standard of living is considerab y
higher than even that of the British, and that alone suffices to place
him in the rear for still some time to come. Then there is the com-
petition of immigration and other things. When the time comes,
things will go ahead over there tremendously fast and energetica ly,
but it may take some time until then. Miracles happen nowhere.
And then there is the misfortune of the arrogant Germans, who
want to play the schoolmaster and commander in one, and make
the natives dislike learning even the best things from them . ...

Everything went off very well in Erfurt. I shall send you the
official minutes as soon as they are published. Bebel says the S P“|*
were badly garbled in the news reports. Instead of makin 0 accu
dons, ^opposition of the presumptuous Berliners was at once
placed in the prisoner’s dock itself. They behaved with miserable
cowardice, and now they must work outside the party if they want
To accomplish anything. Quite beyond doubt there are pohee ele-
ments among them, and another section consists of c0 ^f^
archists who want to do secret recruiting among our people. T

“Z, oi tern are iackasses: bamp.iou: ^ ^
dates and would-be great men of all sorts. All m all, less th
two hundred strong. Herr Vollmar likewise hadtosubm.t; dns fe -
low is much more dangerous than the former ^oup ^He is c e^ erer
and more persistent, vain to the point of insanity, and wants to play
an important part at any price. Bebel behaved
Singer Auer, and Fischer (who was on the Sozialdemokrat he
a very able fellow and a very rough Bavarian ‘"to the bargain) .
Liebknecht had the bitter role of having to advocate Kaimkv sd f
program, which, supported by Bebel and myself *as
basis of the new program’s theoretical sect, " n , , y Even

faction of seeing the Marxian critique win all ^

the last trace of Lassalleanism has been removed, ^ nh the exc p
tion of a few poorly edited passages (where only the expressio

1 Blank space left by Engels.

MARX AND ENGELS

238

dull and generalized) nothing can be said against the program anv
more, at least not after a first reading. '

You will have seen that Lafargue is a candidate in Lille. You will
get the results of tomorrow’s election long before this letter If he
isn’t elected, he is certain of a scat in the Nord Ddpartement in the
next general elections.

The danger of war is becoming greater in spite of the Russian
1 amine. The Russians want to exploit the new French alliance
diplomatically, rapidly and thoroughly, and though I am convinced
that Russian diplomacy does not want a war, and that the famine
would make a war look insane, militarist and Pan-Slavic tendencies
(now supported by the very strong industrial bourgeoisie with a view
to market expansion) may get the upper hand, and blunders may
likewise occur in Vienna, Berlin, or Paris which will cause war to
neak out. Bebel and I have been in correspondence on this point
and we are of the opinion that if the Russians start war against us
the German Socialists must fight the Russians and their allies who-
ever they may be, d outrance [to the death]. If Germany is crushed
then we shall be too, while in the most favorable case the struggle
will be such a violent one that Germany will be able to maintain
itself only by revolutionary means, so that very possibly we shall be
forced to come into power and play the part of 1793. Bebel has made
a speech on this in Berlin which has aroused a lot of comment in the
French press. I shall try to make this clear to the French in their
own language, which is not easy. But although I think it would be
a very great misfortune if it came to war and if the latter brought
us to power prematurely, still one must be armed for this eventuality
and I am glad that there I have Bebel, who is by far the ablest of our
people, on my side .... Yours,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, January 6, 1802

Dear Sorge:

... I have safely passed my seventy-first birthday, and all in all,
I am healthier and stronger than five or six years ago. If I should
live on to 1900-I don’t know, to be sure, whether this would be
good fortune or hard luck — I think I shall live through very much
indeed. You in America have a movement that moves in ups and
downs, continually gives rise to disappointments, and hence can
easily lead to pessimism. Here I have the European movement right

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

239

in front of my eyes, making gigantic strides on the whole, at its center
the German movement, calmly progressing with irresistible natural
strength, and therefore I tend to the other extreme. I have written
something about this in the French calendar, which I shall send
you as soon as I have a second copy.

Fortunately, war with Russia has been postponed for three or
four years, if no acts of madness happen anywhere. As peaceful de-
velopment in Germany promises us victory under the most favorable
conditions, all the more surely though somewhat later, we have no
reason to stake everything on one card, and we should have to stake
everything on one card in such a war.

There is no place yet in America for a third party, I believe. The
divergence of interests even in the same class group is so great in that
tremendous area that wholly different groups and interests are rep-
resented in each of the two big parties, depending on the locality,
and almost each particular section of the possessing class has its rep-
resentatives in each of the two parties to a very large degree, though
today big industry forms the core of the Republicans on the whole,
just as the big landowners of the South form that of the Democrats.
The apparent haphazardness of this jumbling together is what
provides the splendid soil for the corruption and the plundering
of the government that flourish there so beautifully. Only when the
land— the public lands— is completely in the hands of the specu-
lators, and settlement on the land thus becomes more and more
difficult or falls victim to gouging-only then, I think, will the time
come, with peaceful development, for a third party. Land is the
basis of speculation, and the American speculative mama and specu-
lative opportunity are the chief levers that hold the native-born
worker in bondage to the bourgeoisie. Only when there is a genera-
tion of native-born workers that cannot expect anything from specu-
lation any more, will we have a solid foothold in America. But, of
course, who can count on peaceful development in America! T lere
are economic jumps over there, like the political ones in France-
to be sure, they produce the same momentary retrogressions.

The small farmer and the petty bourgeois will hardly ever succeed
in forming a strong party; they consist of elements that change too
rapidly— the farmer is often a migratory farmer, farming two, three,
and four farms in succession in different states and territories, im-
migration and bankruptcy promote the change in peisonne m eac
group, and economic dependence upon the creditor also hampers
independence-but to make up for it they are a splendid element
for politicians, who speculate on their discontent in order to sell
them out to one of the big parties afterward.

240

MARX AND ENGELS

The tenacity of the Yankees, who are even rehashing the Green-
back humbug, is a result of their theoretical backwardness and their
Anglo-Saxon contempt for all theory. They are punished for this by a
superstitious belief in every philosophical and economic absurdity,
by religious sectarianism, and idiotic economic experiments, out of
which, however, certain bourgeois cliques profit.

Louise asks you to send her only the Woman's Journal ( Boston )
and even this only until March 3/st, unless we do not write otherwise
before then. She needed it for the Vienna Arbeiterinnen-Zeitung
(she, Laura [Marx’s second daughter], and Tussy are the chief
contributors) and she says it could never occur to her to force the
drivel of the American swell-mob-ladies 1 upon working women.
What you have so kindly sent her has enabled her to become well-
posted again and has convinced her that these ladies are still as
supercilious and narrow-minded as ever; she merely wants to give
this one magazine a couple of months’ trial. In the interim she
thanks you most sincerely for your kindness.

The first time Lafargue spoke in the Chamber he let himself be
put out of countenance somewhat by the heckling and shouting. 2 *
This will iron itself out, however. The Frenchmen always improve in
actual battle.

The story about Gompers is as follows: He wrote me and sent me
detailed papers of his organization. I was out of town a great deal at
the time— in summer— and tremendously busy in-between. Nor was
I at all clear about the matter; I thought Iliacos extra peccatur muros
et intra [They sin inside and outside the Trojan walls]. Then it
was said that Gompers would come to Brussels or over here, and so
I thought I would settle the matter orally. Afterward, when he didn't
come, I forgot about the matter. But I shall look up the documents
and write him that I decline the role 8 with thanks.

I wrote K. Kautsky a few days ago and instructed him to inquire
of Dietz regarding the reprinting of your articles in a separate book;
I am still waiting for a reply. Haste makes waste is the motto in
Germany, especially in Stuckart 4 * on the banks of the Neckar. . . .

Blatchford is out of the Workman's Times, which is a great gain.

1 This hyphenated word is written in English.

* After the massacre of the workers at Fourmies during the 1891 May Day
demonstration, Paul Lafargue, who had been sentenced to one year in prison,
became the standard-bearer of a united front against the reactionaries and was
elected to the Chamber of Deputies from the Department of the North. See p. 238.

•Of arbitrator between the American Federation of Labor and the Socialist
Labor Party.

4 The Swabian pronunciation of Stuttgart, where the Dietz publishing house

was located.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

241

What is more, the paper exhibits the defects that a private enterprise
of this sort must always have as long as there is no party behind it

stroncr enough to control it. , ,

I now have: (1) to read proofs of the reprint of The Condition of
the Working Class in England in 1844 ; (2) to look over Avelings
translation of Socialism , Utopian and Scientific; (3) some other
minor items; and then (4) I return to Volume III [of Capital] where
I have the hardest chapters ahead of me. But I think that, with the
energetic rejection of all interludes, it will move along. What is
left after that will, I think, offer merely formal difficulties. . . .

Yours,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE London, March 5, .89.

Dea ! f S And now Germany. Things are going ahead so splendidly
there that we couldn’t wish for anything better, despite the fact that
hard blows will probably fall soon. From the very start little
Wilhelm rill was a splendid specimen of a last of the breed, w
Xing ,Le dynasty and the monarchy as no other But now h*
madness has grown acute, and his megalomania doesn t let to
sleep nor remain silent. Luckily the regis voluntas [lungs will]
which has become the so-called suprema lex [supreme tol*™
against us today and against the Liberals tomorrow, and now he has
even discovered that all the evil comes from ^ ^als whose
progeny we are-that is what his clerics have talked into him. And
Sow te i. prosecuting the Kolnische Zeitung for lese^najestd jmd he
won’t stop until the tame German philistine is driven into the

^Whaimore could we ask! A month ago, when S = ddiv^ his
speech in the Reichstag, they might have
a new Socialist bill, but now even that can t be

angrier at the bourgeois opposition to the clerical e ement^y school
law than at all the Social-Democrats, and they would mher leave
us in peace than make a concession to the others .] U is pr ecuely^ h
bourgeois parties that offer him the most oppoe ^
ments, not our 35 men in the Reichstag while we h^n t a single
seat in the Prussian Chamber. Nevertheless there
hard fights ahead of us here, too, but what cot
having the Crown place itself on an untenable footing with the

242

MARX AND ENGELS

bourgeois and the workers at the same time! All the ministers are
second- and third-rate persons; Caprivi is a good-natured lout but
he does not measure up to his job, while Miquel grows no smarter
by eating more and more dirt every day. In short, if things go on
in this way, a crisis may occur soon. A demented monarch can-
not be tolerated for years on end in Prussia and in the Prussian-
German Reich as could be done in Bavaria, and I should not be
surprised to see them equip a private madhouse for little Wilhelm
And then a regency-that would be just what we require.

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SCHLUETER

Dear Schluter: L0nd0 "' March 3 °'

... 1 he First of May will be a very decisive clay for the Frenchmen
tliis time— because of the municipal council elections throughout
France with the exception of Paris, on that day-and they are
spurred on by the ambition to match the Germans.

Your great obstacle in America, it seems to me, lies in the ex-
ceptional position of the native-born workers. Up to 1848 one could
speak of a permanent native-born working class only as an exception.
The small beginnings of one in the cities in the East still could
always hope to become farmers or bourgeois. Now such a class has
developed and has also organized itself on trade-union lines to a
gieat extent. But it still occupies an aristocratic position and wher-
ever possible leaves the ordinary badly paid occupations to the im-
migrants, only a small portion of whom enter the aristocratic trade
unions. But these immigrants are divided into different nationalities,
which understand neither one another nor, for the most part, the
language of the country. And your bourgeoisie knows much better
even than the Austrian government how to play off one nationality
against the other: Jews, Italians, Bohemians, etc., against Germans
and Irish, and each one against the other, so that differences in
workers’ standards of living exist, I believe, in New York to an ex-
tent unheard of elsewhere. And added to this is the complete in-
difference of a society that has grown up on a purely capitalist
basis, without any easygoing feudal background, toward the human
lives that perish in the competitive struggle. . . .

Tn such a country continually renewed waves of advance, followed
by equally certain setbacks, are inevitable. Only the advances always

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 243

become more powerful, the setbacks less paralyzing, and on the whole
the cause does move forward. But this I consider certain: the purely
bourgeois foundation, with no prebourgeois swindle back of it, the
corresponding colossal energy of development, which is displayed
even in the mad exaggeration of the present protective tariff system,
will one day bring about a change that will astound the whole
world. Once the Americans get started, it will be with an energy and
impetuousness compared with which we in Europe shall be mere
children.

With best regards.

Yours,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, December 31, 1892

Dear Sorge:

. Here in old Europe things are somewhat livelier than in your
“youthful” country, which still doesn’t quite want to get out of its
hobbledehoy stage. It is remarkable, but quite natural, how firmlv
rooted are bourgeois prejudices even in the working class in such
a youn<r country, which has never known feudalism and has grown
up on a bourgeois basis from the beginning. Out of his very opposi-
tion to the mother country-which is still clothed in its feudal d«-
guise-the American worker also imagines that the traditionally
inherited bourgeois regime is something progressive and superior
by nature and for all time, a non plus ultra [not to be surpassed].
Tust as in New England. Puritanism, the reason for the whole
colony’s existence, has become for this very reason a traditiona
heirloom and almost inseparable from local patriotism. The Ameri-
cans may strain and struggle as much as they like, but thc\ can no
discount their future— colossally great as it ls ~ a ? n ^ e n 1 , e ^
bill of exchange: thev must wait for the date on which it falls due.
and just because their future is so great, their present mustoccupv
itself mainly with preparatory work for the future, and this work
as in even young country, is of a predominantly material nature
and involves a certain backwardness of thought, a clinging to he
traditions connected with the foundation of the new "»ti°nalit>.
The Anglo-Saxon race-these damned Schlesw.g-Holsteiners, as Marx
always called them-is slow-witted anyhow, and its history, both m
Europe and America (economic success and predominantly peacefu
political development), has encouraged this still more. Onh grea

244

MARX AND ENGELS

events can be of assistance here, and if, added to the more or less
completed transfer of the public lands to private ownership, there
now comes the expansion of industry under a less insane tarilf policy
and the conquest of foreign markets, it may go well with you, too.
The class struggles here in England, too, were more turbulent during
the period of development of large-scale industry and died down
just in the period of England’s undisputed industrial domination of
the world. In Germany, too, the development of large-scale industry
since 1850 coincides with the rise of the Socialist movement, and it
will be no different, probably, in America. It is the revolutionizing of
all established conditions by industry as it develops that also rev-
olutionizes people’s minds.

Moreover, the Americans have for a long time been providing
the European world with the proof that the bourgeois republic is
the republic of capitalist businessmen, in which politics are a busi-
ness deal like any other; and the French, whose ruling bourgeois
politicians have long known this and practiced it in secret, are now
at last, through the Panama scandal, also learning this truth on a
national scale. But to keep the constitutional monarchies from put-
ting on virtuous airs, every one of them has its little Panama: Eng-
land, the building societies’ scandals, one of which, the Liberator,
has thoroughly “liberated” a mass of small depositors from some
£8,000,000; Germany, the Baare scandals and Lowe’s guns (which
prove that the Prussian officer steals as he always did, but
very, very little— the one thing in which he is modest); Italy, the
Banca Romana, which is already nearly a Panama, having bought
up about 150 deputies and senators; I am informed that documents
about this are to be published in Switzerland shortly — Schliiter
should watch for everything that appears in the papers about the
Banca Romana. And in Holy Russia the Old-Russian Prince Mesh-
chersky is outraged by the indifference with which the Panama
disclosures are received in Russia and can explain it to himself only
by the fact that Russian virtue has been corrupted by French ex-
amples, and “we ourselves have more than one Panama at home.”

But, all the same, the Panama affair is the beginning of the end
of the bourgeois republic and may soon put us in a very responsible
position. The whole of the opportunist gang and the majority of
the Radicals are disgracefully compromised; the government is try-
ing to hush it up, but that is no longer possible; the documentary
evidence is in the hands of people who want to overthrow the pres-
ent rulers: (1) the Orleanists; (2) the fallen minister Constans,
whose career has been ended by revelations about his scandalous
past; (3) Rochefort and the Boulangists; (4) Cornelius Herz, who,

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

245

.. , f deeolv involved in all sorts of fraud, has evidently fled to
fi onlyto buy himself out by putting the others into a hole
A^hese have more than enough evidence against the gang o
thieves, but are holding back,

ammunition 1 at once, an ^ the mselves beyond hope

dingeSspe aders] more and 1^ while n also

scandal and the reve ations to > m i nev itable dissolution of the

Chamb^and new elections, which however ought not to come too

Tis clear that

when our people will beco > P qu i c bi y; our people

in France. Only things shou ^ . shorBut as things stand

in France are not npe for p ° hat intermediate stages

at present it is absolutely are compro-

will fill out this interval. The oH R^ ^ wld Pan ama

raised to the last man, and the y fied themse lves with them
lottery tickets on a lar S e s himse lf he would now be master

-if the ass Boulanger had not she ’ h ld unC onscious

of the situation. I’m curious to time. There will

logic of French history will again 8^ Qr other does no t swing

SET and s,art

on. Minor successes eservw pasS ed new masses of the dis-

essential part of the miht ^ t is re Lted, the Reichstag dissolved,
contented will stream to us, if U « 1 seats in t he Reichstag,

and new elections held, we shal g m the dec ; s i V e vote. At any

which in cases of conflict may o g - n Germany , even if, as

rate, the struggle will be fou J * 0 ce ^ ut it is good that Volume
is possible, it first brea s ou j cannot say. to be sure: the

III will now at last be fimsh f aves are beginning to rise high,

times are growing stormy and Frau Kautsky, too.

Happy New Year to you and your wire, YouIS>

F. Engels

2 4 () MARX AND ENCELS

ENGELS TO SORGE

Dear Sorge: Sunday, January i8, 189^

. . . Here there has been a conference in Bradford n f .1 , ,

The sn P ab ° r K any ’ 1 * Whidl y° U kn ™ from the I ZklLTr"

J he S.D.F. on die one hand and the Fabians on the other hi
been able, with their sectarian attitude to absorb th > , ‘ ve not

socialism in the provinces, so the foundation o a ZT
quite good. But the rush has now become so great n^ 7 W3S

industrial districts of the north, that this new party’make's'il an" ““
an ce at dns very first congress already stronger IhZ * e
the Fabians, if not stronger than both of them together And
mass of the membership is definitely very ,mnr I A “ lhe

Eft £ “ ~ STiCS

and as the piogram is ours in the main points, Aveling was S
in joining and m accepting a seat on the Executive If ,h P gh

areno^held 10 " 5 f nd . ^ intrigues o£ the London would-be greatmen
are now held in check somewhat, and the tactics dn nnt ,

too wrongheaded, the Independent Labor Party may succeed™

detaching the masses from the Social-Democratic Federation anl

Hyndman has pushed the S.D.F. completely into the background
t has done so badly under his policy of intrigue that H haffellen
complete disrepute with his own people, under the pressure

the LWmM ^ I d * legate ?- An atten, P t to restore his popularity in

rrre^T P y , COmm,t ' ee < to which «hen also belong/ by
-revoluuonar)' boasting (though his personal cowardice is com-

and Aveling obt — ° nS hlS best f,iends! ) merely resulted in Tussy
n F r ’ . g 0b . ta I ,n,ng greater mfluence in that committee. By now

don he e b S r I' °" ,tS *”*** as ** oldest socialist o^anizl

It has ceased ./s' ab m,Se “I™ beC ° me T ch more tnIc ™ of Others,
it is viz much * ^iT’ ^ in general it feels much more like what

1 ti, v 1 • h smal,er than ,f pretended to be.

undemanding ^7" L ° n ?.° n are a band of careerists who have
uta u irt '° reahZe tbe inevitability of the social revo-
the crude n^ r C ° d T entrust th ” tremendous job to

themselves a hH /r"' ^ are therefore kind enough to set
IiriSr The 3 . ’ f ° f ,hc revoIution is their fundamental
hmunll } ' -r ‘ hC "***«*" P ar excellence. Their socialism
p< socialism; the community, not the nation, should be-

January ' ^ fountIed at the Bradford Conference on

2 See footnote, p. 229.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

247

come the owner of the means of production, at least temporarily.
This socialism of theirs is then represented as an extreme but inevit-
able consequence of bourgeois liberalism, and from this follow their
tactics, not to fight the Liberals decisively as opponents, but to push
them on to socialist conclusions: therefore to intrigue with them, to
permeate liberalism with socialism — not to put up Socialist candi-
dates against Liberals, but to palm them off and force them upon
the Liberals, or to deceive the latter into taking them. They
naturally do not realize that in doing this they are either betrayed
and deceived themselves or else are betraying socialism.

With great industry they have produced, among all sorts of rub-
bish, some good propaganda writing as well, in fact the best that
the English have turned out in this respect. But as soon as they
come to their specific tactic: hushing up the class struggle, it gets
rotten. Hence, too, their fanatical hatred of Marx and of all of us—
because of the class struggle.

These people have, of course, a considerable bourgeois following
and hence money, and have many able workers in the provinces who
would have nothing to do with the S.D.F. But five-sixths of the
provincial members agree more or less with our point of view and
will certainly fall away at the critical moment. In Bradford, where
they were represented, several times they declared themselves
decisively against the London Executive of the Fabians.

You see, it is a critical point for the movement here, and some-
thing may come of the new organization. For a moment it was
close to falling into the clutches of Champion — who consciously or
unconsciously is working for the Tories just as the Fabians are for
the Liberals — and of his ally Maltman Barry, whom you got to
know at The Hague (Barry is now an acknowledged and permanent
paid Tory agent and manager of the socialistic wing of the Conser-
vatives!) — see the Workman's Times for November and December.
But in the end Champion preferred to start publishing his Labour
Elector again and has thus placed himself in opposition to the
Workman's Times and the new party.

Keir Hardie executed a clever stroke by putting himself at the
head of this new party, and John Burns, whose complete inactivity
outside his constituency has already done him a lot of harm, com-
mitted a fresh piece of stupidity by keeping aloof here, too. I am
afraid he is stuck fast in an untenable position.

That here, too, people like Keir Hardie, Shaw, Maxwell, and
others are pursuing all sorts of secondary aims of personal ambition
is a matter of course. But the danger arising from this diminishes
in the degree that the party itself becomes stronger and more of a

MARX AND ENGELS

248

mass party, and it is already diminished by the necessity for exposing
the competing sects. Socialism has penetrated the masses in the
industrial districts enormously in the past few years, and I am
counting on these masses to keep the leaders in order. Of course,
there will be blunders enough, and cliques of all kinds too; if they
only succeed in keeping them within tolerable limits.

At worst, the foundation of the new organization has the advan-
tage that unity is more easily achieved with three competing sects
than with two that are diametrically opposed to each other.

As for what you write on December 23rd regarding the Poles:
Ever since Kronstadt the Prussians have been expecting a war with
Russia, and hence they have been friendly towards the Poles (and
they have given us proof of that). The Poles in question will have
tried to make use of this in order to provoke war, which is to liberate
them with Germany’s aid . But in Berlin they don’t want this at all,
and if the coup should come off, Caprivi will decidedly leave them
in the lurch. At the present time we have no use for a war; we have
more certain means of making headway, which would only be
disturbed by war. . . .

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, March 18, 1893

Dear Sorge:

. . . The Brussels Conference regarding the Zurich Congress 1
takes place next Sunday (a week from tomorrow), so Bebel will
drop in for a few days on his way back, and the Lafargues will come
at about the same time. I am glad to have that youngster here again
in order to talk over French affairs thoroughly with him. Still,
enough time is left me to finish Volume III, as the chief difficulties
are now behind me.

The matter of the Socialiste has been settled.

The silver business in America does not seem to be able to settle
down otherwise than through a crash. Nor does Cleveland seem to
have the power and courage to break the necks of this bribery ring.
And it would be really good if things came to a head. A nation— a
young nation — so conceited about its “practice” and so frightfully
dense theoretically as the Americans are gets thoroughly rid of so

*The third congress of the Second International was held in Zurich in
August 1893. This was the only congress of the International that Engels attended.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

249

deep-rooted a fixed idea only through its own sufferings. The plausi-
ble idea of imagining that there isn’t enough money in the world
because one hasn’t any when one needs it — this childish idea
common to the paper-currency swindle a. la Kellogg and to the
silver swindle is most surely cured by experiment and bankruptcy,
which may also take a course that is very favorable for us. If only
some sort of tariff reform is effected this fall, you may be quite
satisfied. The rest will follow; the main thing is that American
industry is enabled to compete in the world market.

Here things are going very well. The masses are unmistakably in
motion; you are getting the details from Avelings somewhat long-
winded reports in the V olkszeitung. The best evidence is that the
old sects are losing ground and must fall into line. The Social-Demo-
cratic Federation has actually deposed Mr. Hyndman; he is allowed
to grumble and complain a bit about international politics here
and there in Justice , but he is finished -his own people have found
him out. The man provoked me personally and politically wherever
he could for ten years; I never did him the honor of answering him,
in the conviction that he was man enough to ruin himself, and m t e
end I have been justified. After all the ten years’ persecution, they
have recently asked Tussy to write reports on the international
movement for Justice , which she refused to do, of course, as long
as the infamous slanders that Justice has heaped on Aveling and
her for years are not publicly withdrawn.

The same thing is happening to the Fabians. Their own branches
in the provinces are outgrowing these people as well as the SJ) T .
Lancashire and Yorkshire are again taking the lead *" l tius *
ment, too, as in the Chartist movement. People like Sidney \\ e ,
Bernard Shaw, and the like, who wanted to permeate the Liberals
with socialism, must now allow themselves to be permeated by die
spirit of the workingmen members of their own society They are
resisting with might and main, but its no use. eit er .
alone, officers without soldiers, or they must go along. The former
is more likely and also more desirable. - i

The Independent Labor Party - as the most recen , ant -
has brought with it fewer fixed prejudices; it has good [ c ' e ™ e
the workers of the North in particular - and so far is the i g
ine expression of the present movement. To be su«, there are al
sorts of funny people among the leaders and most of the b«t
them, even, have the annoying clique ha its o P .... t hem
regime, just as with you in America, but t te masses There

and will either teach them manners or throw t em c \ , d

are still blunders enough, but the mam danger has been weathered,

250

MARX AND ENGELS

and I now expect rapid progress, which will also react upon America.

In Germany the situation is coming to a crisis. A compromise is
hardly possible after the recent reports of the [Reichstag] military
commission’s sessions; the government is making it impossible for
the gentlemen of the Center and the Liberals to change sides,
and without forty to fifty of them no majority is feasible. Hence
dissolution and new elections. I expect 2,500,000 votes for us, if
things go well, as we have grown at an amazing rate. Bebel expects
fifty to sixty seats, for we have the election-district gerrymander
against us and all the others are combining against us, so that we
cannot convert even big minorities into majorities on the runoff bal-
lots. I should prefer the thing to proceed peacefully until 1895,
when we should create an altogether different effect, but whatever
happens, everything must help us along, from the judge to Little
Wilhelm.

F. Wiesen, a young man of Baird, Texas, has asked me for a state-
ment against the putting up of candidates “for President,” for we
want to abolish the Presidency and that is a denial of revolutionary
principle. I have sent him the enclosed reply; if it should be pub-
lished in curtailed form, please have it printed in the Volks-
zeitung. . . .

Your

F. Engels

Enclosure

London, March 14, 1802

Mr. F. Wiesen
Baird, Texas, U.S.A.

Dear comrade:

Accumulated work prevented me from answering your lines of
January 29th any earlier.

I do not see what violation of the social-democratic principle is
necessarily involved in putting up candidates for any elective politi-
cal office or in voting for these candidates, even if we are aiming at
the abolition of this office itself.

One may be of the opinion that the best way to abolish the
Presidency and the Senate in America is to elect men to these offices
who are pledged to effect their abolition, and then one will consis-
tently act accordingly. Others may think that this method is inappro-
priate; that’s a matter of opinion. There may be circumstances
under which the former mode of action would also involve a viola-

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

25 »

tion of revolutionary principle; I fail to see why that should always
and everywhere be the case.

For the immediate goal of the labor movement is the conquest of
political power for and by the working class. If we agree on that, the
difference of opinion regarding the ways and means of struggle to
be employed therein can scarcely lead to differences of principle
among sincere people who have their wits about them. In my
opinion those tactics are the best in each country that leads to the
goal most certainly and in the shortest time. But we are yet very far
from this goal precisely in America, and I believe I am not making
a mistake in explaining the importance still attributed to such
academic questions over there by this very circumstance. I leave it to
your discretion to publish these remarks — unabridged.

Yours very sincerely,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO LLOYD 1

[London, March 1893]

Dear Sir: ,

I have duly received your two favors of February 3rd and Marcn
9th with enclosures. I very much regret that I shall not be able
either to assist personally at your congresses or to supply the papers
you ask me for. I should send them to you with the greatest
pleasure, were it not that all my time is at present taken up with the
manuscript of the third book of my late friend Karl Marx s great
work on Capital, which I am preparing for publication. This third
book ought to have been out years ago; but never until now could
I secure that continued freedom from interruption which alone wi
enable me to finish my task. I have been compelled to decline a
outside work, though ever so tempting, unless absolutely necessary.
By the time your congress meets, the MS. ought to go to press, ut
this could not be, were I to accede to your request. For the work
you ask me to do ought not to be journalistic commonplace; it
ought to be the very best I can furnish; it would require mature
study and thought, and that means a considerable amount of time,
which for the reasons given I am not in a position to saciifice.

I have, however, forwarded you per bookpost a copy of the Eng-

1 This letter was written in English. Henry Demarest Uoyd, as Secretary of
the Committee on Program and Correspondence of the Worlds Congress A
iliary of the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, had asked Engels t( >J ead a
paper on international labor congresses before the Laboi Congress to e
at the exposition.

252

MARX AND ENGELS

lish edition of the Communist Manifesto of 1848 (by K. Marx and
myself) and another of my Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, pub-
lished a few months ago, as a small tribute which I hope may prove
of interest to some members of your Labor Congress.

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, May 17, 1893

Dear Sorge:

The Lincoln affair occurred while I was still in Manchester — at
the end of 1864 — but I remember it only vaguely, nor have I ever
come upon Lincoln’s reply among my papers or those of Marx. 1
It is possible that it will come to light somewhere when I find time
to classify and work over the enormous mass, but it is unthinkable
without three or four weeks of work. All I can find is the following
in Eichhoffs pamphlet on the International, Berlin 1868, p. 53
(based on Marx’s notes and material):

“The re-election of Lincoln, assured by the election of November
8, 1864, furnished the General Council with an opportunity to send
an address of congratulations. At the same time it called mass meet-
ings in support of the Union’s cause. That is why Lincoln expressly
acknowledged the services of the International Workingmen’s Asso-
ciation to the good cause.’’

In general I can only say that my materials on the I.W.A. before
i 8 jo are very incomplete — part of the minutes of the General
Council, Marx’s and Lessner’s collections of newspaper clippings, as
well as part of Becker’s, and finally Marx’s letters to me. I haven’t
even a complete file of the official documents of the General Council,
proclamations, and the like, not to mention the correspondence of
the secretaries, which nearly all of them kept for themselves. There
are no official minutes of the Congresses in existence. None the less
it is much better than anything anybody else has, and it will be
worked up as soon as I can. But when? . . .

The atmosphere in Germany has changed greatly; the bourgeois

1 Sorge had been asked to obtain the text of Abraham Lincoln’s letter thanking
the General Council of the I.W.A. in London for its aid to the Union cause.
Through publication of this letter it was hoped to obtain the pardon of the
defendants in the Chicago Haymarket trial still in prison. See pp. 65-66 for the
text of the General Council's address to Lincoln; the letter from the American
Minister to Great Britain conveying Lincoln’s reply is printed in Karl Marx and
Frederick Engels, The Civil War in the United States (International Publishers,
New York, 1937) , pp. 282-83.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

253

nrcss may still shriek in the old tone, but the respect that our people
have gained for themselves in the Reichstag has won them an a to-
gether different position. In addition, one can’t close one s eyes to
the steadily growing might of the party. If we again display con-
siderable growth in the next elections, respect will increase on the
one hand/ as will fear on the other. And the later will then drive
Messrs. Philistines unanimously into the arms of the govem-

" The May First demonstration here was very nice; but it is already
becoming somewhat of an everyday or rather an annual matter, the
first fresh bloom is gone. The narrow mmdedness of the Trad«
Council and of the socialist sects - Fabians and the S.DT. aga
compelled us to hold two demonstrations, but everything went off
as we desired and we - the Eight-Hour Committee - had many more
people than the united opposition. In particular our internal
platform had a very good audience. I figure that there was a total o
240.000 in the park, of which we had 140,000 and the opposition

m °H we^get^a large increase in votes in Germany, it will have a
good effect on the autumn elections in France as well. If our people
there pm a doren men in the Chamber (the, - county onfou

r m “ -

join them p Engels

ENGELS TO HOURWICH 1

London, May 27, i »93

Dr. Isaac A. Hourwich,

^Many thanks for your interesting stud, on the £«»»«■ »/
Russian Village which I read, I hopejm ^ P ^ move -
As to the burning questions of the Russian ' ^ ^ in u

ment, the part which the peasantry ni y . ' • j y state an G pin-
these are subjects on which I cou c not coi again the

ion for publication without previously studying o g

PnrHUh Hourwich had sent Engels a copy of his
1 This letter was written in English, _Ho ^ New Y ork, 1892. with a

monograph. The Economics of , . vicw f Q { the peasant problem in

request that Engels comment on Hourwici

tsarist Russia.

MARX AND ENGELS

254

whole subject and completing my very imperfect knowledge of the
facts of the case by bringing it up to date. But for that, I am sorry to
say, I have not at present the time. And then, I have every reason to
doubt whether such a public statement by me would have the effect
you expect of it. I know from my own experience (1849-1852) how
unavoidably a political emigration splits itself up into a number of
divergent factions so long as the mother-country remains quiet. The
burning desire to act, face to face with the impossibility of doing
anything effective, causes in many intelligent and energetic heads
an overactive mental speculation, an attempt at discovering or
inventing new and almost miraculous means of action. The word
of an outsider would have but a trifling, and at best a passing,
effect. If you have followed the Russian emigration literature of
the last decade, you will yourself know how, for instance, passages
from Marx’s writings and correspondence have been interpreted in
the most contradictory ways, exactly as if they had been texts from
the classics or from the New Testament, by various sections of
Russian emigrants. Whatever I might say on the subject you
mention would probably share the same fate, if any attention was
paid to it. And so for all these various reasons, I think it best for
all whom it may concern, including myself, to abstain.

Yours very truly,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, October 7, 1893

Dear Sorge:

We got back here on Friday, September 29th, and soon after
received your letter of the 22nd. I was away for two months; I went
to Cologne with Louise Kautsky, where we met Bebel and his
wife; then we all traveled together via Mainz and Strasbourg to
Zurich, whence I sneaked away for a week to Grisons, where I met
a brother of mine. But I had had to promise that I would be back
for the close of the Congress, and there malgrd moi [in spite of me]
they put on the closing scene, with me, that you have read about. 1
But that set the note for the whole trip, and my intention of traveling
purely as a private individual was totally foiled. I stayed in Switzer-
land two weeks more and then left with Bebel for Vienna via Munich
and Salzburg. There the parade began all over again. First I had to

1 As honorary president of the Zurich Congress, Engels made the closing speedi
of the Congress.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

255

attend a banquet, but there was room for only about six hundred,
and the others also wanted to see me, so there was a mass meeting the
•nt hrSre I left where I also had to say a few words. From
Tre L Sue to Berlin, and there, after an energetic protest
S: p S mass meeting, I go. oil with a banquet, ..which
E' were , ooo to a.ooo people. All that was very nice of the

fr an C d 'Z

Srbi g ye a a nd small. vs,

movement progressing excellen . P ’ P . it f rom the

German bourgeois. Of course, there is 0 be mtm ^ ^ ^

details - the party press, for in5t ^ nce ’ " excellent and usually
party, especially in Be. assumed the
better than the leaders or at least than m Deop i e; they feel

role of leaders. One can do ev ^ I 7 in S , j Qr ^ struggle and
really happy only in the strugg e, ey them WO rk to do. It
are bored when their opponents don g . Socialist

is positively a fact £. ^'/^^f^oicing -for then
Law with scornful laughter, dav t

they would have something new to „ . , ^ Austrians should

But alongside our Germans m the Re.ch the^ ^ ^ wholt

not be forgotten either. They ar ' re Fren ch, more easily

as the Germans but they are livelier, jore j ^ ^

stirred to great deeds, but a o German, the average

Austrian, as an individual, for the women, I prefer the

Viennese worker to the B^lmer, a d ^ ^ origi milky.

Viennese working women by far. 1 YP . - ousness G f the Berliners

compared with which the r e ec P j ^ out an d return to

is insufferable. If Messrs. Frenchmen & mav com e

their old tradition of revo !'' 1,) " k h ind out 0 f their sails and
to pass that the Austrians will take ^ n "
strike the first blow at the next opportum y.

MARX AND ENGELS

256

Moreover, Berlin and Vienna have become the most beautiful
cities in the world, alongside Paris. London and New York arc dirty
holes in comparison, London in particular, which seems quite
strange to us ever since our return.

Messieurs les Frangais [Messrs. Frenchmen] will have to prove
their mettle in November. Twelve Marxists and four Blanquists,
five Allemanists and two Broussists, besides a few independents and
some twenty-four Socialistes-radicaux [Radical-Socialists] a la Mil-
lerand, are a sizable lump of yeast in the Chamber and they ought
to produce a pretty fermentation if they stick together. 1 wonder
whether they will? Most of the twelve Marxists are wholly unknown
persons; Lafargue is missing, while Guesde, who is a much better
speaker but also a much more credulous optimist, has a seat. I am
very curious. Our Marxists had already concluded a sort of alliance
with Millerand and Co. before the elections, which the Blanquists,
and Vaillant in particular, now seem to have joined through their
collaboration with Millerand’s Petite Republique Frangaise. The
Blanquists are also now coming out very decidedly against the
Russian alliance. But I have no direct news of the present status of
the various parties, probably because they are not yet clear about
it themselves.

I hope that you and your wife are in good health. Cordial regards

to both of you from Your

F. Engels

I saw De Leon and Sanial in Zurich. They did not impiess me.

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, November 11, 1893

Dear Sorge:

. . . Read the article by Autolycus (Burgess) on the manifesto of
the Fabians on the front page of today’s Workman’s Times. After
having said for years that the emancipation of the working class
can only be accomplished through the Great Liberal Party, and
after having denounced all independent election activity, even
against Liberal candidates, as concealed Toryism and proclaimed
the permeation of the Liberal Party by socialist principles as the
sole task of the socialists, these gentlemen now declare that the
Liberals are traitors, that they will have nothing to do with them,
and that the workers should put up candidates of their own at the
next election without regard for Liberals or Tories, with the aid
of £30,000 to be raised by the trade unions - if the latter do the

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

257

Fahians this favor, which certainly won’t be the case. This is a corn-
F , tr j m tcr peccavi [Father, I have sinned] of these arrogant bour-
P • i.„ are graciously willing to condescend to emancipate the

LTabove i it wffl'onl, be sensible enough to realise
“"raw .""uneducated a tnass cannot free itself and can achieve
h ,hing except through the grace of these smart lawyers, literati,
nothing ex [^1 8^ An ” nQW the first effort G f these gentle-

men 'announced with drums and trumpets as wodd-shaking^ has
failed so brilliantly that they must admit it themselves. That
humorous aspect of the story youis,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE Lon(lon , Decemb „ ,993

5 whS s ^£ 332 -

lation and available money capital, c ° nce ™ f„ Sec0 nd it suits all

in depredated c “™2' Jd^ble cummcv. which would provide
Junkers also clamor for a double curve y, , f ^ ha( i

them with a veiled Solonic riddance o United States until

been able ,0 wait with the stiver refora 1 ^
the consequences of the nonsense had also reactea P

that would have opened many o t ieir i j oes seem to have

The tariff reform, slow as it is m ge.tmg «r«d, does^ee Eng , an( ,

caused a sort of panic among 1 e ma * ‘ DaDers _of the layoff of

already. 1 hear- ^TmXtwilSm down' as soon as the law i,

paSTand the uncertainty is over: cheg^wtbmches

boldly enter into competition with England in all g

of industry. . . „ n „ n novine business. The

The German socialists in America usua il y not the best

people you get over there from Germany are

MARX AND ENGELS

258

— they stay here — and in any event they are not at all a fair sample
of the German party. And as is the case everywhere, each new
arrival feels himself called upon to turn everything he finds upside
down, turning it into something new, so that a new epoch may date
from himself. Moreover, most of these greenhorns remain stuck in
New York for a long time or for life, continually reinforced by new
additions and relieved of the necessity of learning the language of
the country or of getting to know American conditions properly.
All of that certainly causes much harm, but, on the other hand, it
is not to be denied that American conditions involve very great
and peculiar difficulties for a steady development of a workers’
party.

First, the Constitution, based as in England upon party govern-
ment, which causes every vote for any candidate not put up by one
of the two governing parties to appear to be lost. And the American,
like the Englishman, wants to influence his state; he does not throw
his vote away.

Then, and more especially, immigration, which divides the
workers into two groups: the native-born and the foreigners, and
the latter in turn into (1) the Irish, (2) the Germans, (3) the many
small groups, each of which understands only itself: Czechs, Poles,
Italians, Scandinavians, etc. And then the Negroes. To form a single
party out of these requires quite unusually powerful incentives.
Often there is a sudden violent Sian, but the bourgeois need only
wait passively, and the dissimilar elements of the working class fall
apart again.

Third, through the protective tariff system and the steadily grow-
ing domestic market the workers must have been exposed to a
prosperity no trace of which has been seen here in Europe for yean
now (except in Russia, where, however, the bourgeois profit by it
and not the workers).

A country like America, when it is really ripe for a socialist work-
ers' party, certainly cannot be hindered from having one by the
couple of German socialist doctrinaires.

Part I of Volume III (246 pages of ms., dating from about 1850)
is ready for the printer. This is between us. It will now go ahead
rapidly, I hope. . . .

Your

F. Engels

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

259

ENGELS TO SCHLUETER

[London] December 2, 1893

Dear Schliiter: f , . n .

Now you are at last on the road to getting rid of bimetallism

and of the McKinley tariff ; that will do much to promote develop-
ments over there, though a good silver crash would have been very
good to enlighten the marvelously stupid American farmer and his
cheap money. . . • Yours>

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE

Eastbourne, February 23, 1894

Dear Sorge: „ .

I am here again for a few weeks because of a temporary lameness,

I shall be back in London in six days or so.

You will have received the announcement of Louise s marriage.
Her husband, Dr. Freyberger, is a young Viennese physician who
gave up his career at the University of Vienna because he wasn t
allowed to tell the workers the social causes of their diseases, and
who has now established himself here. He has already shown the
British that they learn more medicine on the Continent than they
do here I For the present all of us are staying in Regents ar
T> oa d

Our singular socialist group in the French Chamber is still some-
what mysterious. Neither its numbers nor its tendency ^is very 'dea
as yet. Guesde is introducing a whole stack of bills, no
will be passed, of course. Jaurts’ initial sensational victories will
hardlv be repeated, as the anarchists’ bomb-thrmang has qu.ckly
succeeded in providing a stable majority for the Cabinet and the

cause of law and order. nn i:

Complete disorganiration prevails here among the officta lpoh
licians, both among the Liberals and the Conservatives,
can maintain their position only through net, pol. Mali ind soad
concessions to the workers, but they lack the courage to do a^Hence
they are trying an election cry against the ouse o -
a second ballot and payment of election expenses by the govern

ment instead of payment of members. j at is, 0 ff er i n <r

give the bourgeoisie more power against the ‘ lor(i$ an ^

the workers more power against the bourgeoisie r eve ^ t we
the workers aren’t being taken in by this any more. In any event we

260

MARX AND ENGELS

shall have general elections here next summer, and if the Liberals
don’t pluck up a great deal of courage and make real concessions to
the workers, they will be defeated and will fall apart. They are being
kept together now by Gladstone alone, who may give up the ghost
any day. Then there will be a bourgeois-democratic party with pro-
labor tendencies, and the rest of the Liberals will go over to Cham-
berlain. And all of this is taking place under the pressure of the
working class, still disunited and half-unconscious. If the latter
gradually becomes conscious things will take an altogether different
turn.

Something violent may happen any day in Italy. The bourgeois
have maintained all the horrors of decaying feudalism, grafting
on it their own infamies and oppression. The country is at the end
of its resources; a change must take place, but the Socialist Party
is still very weak and very confused, although there are some rather
able Marxists in it.

Something is also to be expected in Austria. Down there we
have the comical sight of the Socialists having the support of the
Emperor, who, by approving the Taaffe election reform plan, has
come out for an approximation to universal suffrage, and actually
believes that this is a necessary complement to universal military
service. The coalition Cabinet won’t accomplish anything, or if it
does succeed in having an election law passed, that will be taken
solely as a payment on account, and the movement will continue
calmly, with the tacit approval of the Emperor, until at least Taaffe’s
reform is effected. And then our people will take care of the rest.

In short, things are moving merrily everywhere, and the fin de
siecle [end of the century] is being prepared for more and more
prettily.

The Workman’s Times seems to be in its death throes. Nor is
the Independent Labor Party much more alive; it is remarkable how
slowly and in what zigzag fashion everything moves here.

Many regards to you and your wife from the two Freybergers and

Your

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, March 21, 1894

D ear gorge: ,

Over here things are moving full speed ahead toward dissolu-
tion of Parliament. There will be more worker candidates put up in

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

261

the elections than ever before, but far from enough, and I am
not sure but that a whole lot of them will be put up with Tory
nev Both the Liberals and the Tories hold fast to the ir ’ d * rec
eligibility qualification that is implied in burdening the c J ndldat ^
w fh all the costs of election - from £100 as a minimum to £ 4 oo-£6oo
and even more for the official costs alone: polllmg places, and the
like So when the workers fall into the clutches of Champion, who

Ltofioo per constituency (he got the money from the soap
manufacturer Hudson), the Liberals have no cause to cora P lain ’
general they are approaching the elections with a remarkably ob-
ftTnate ^ miSderstanding of the situation. They act as if they wan
to abolish the House of Lords, but they refuse to change the House
Timmons in such a way (by

” r "h srs ssu >

Fo r wo

t hat grown —

masse, has liked it because it was done R ule Bid mid Home

of making further concessions to the workers. ^ in Austria>

Electoral reform is likewise the . , e a parliament in Europe
Belgium, and Holland; soon there w ^ P . very well in

without workers’ representatives. ., •* excellent skill,

Austria: Adler is leading the movement w th quite
and Sunday’s party convention will help ^ ^ over there and

jazz ^

’wm h“e a «mngK‘on, y then win thing* grow teriout
here in England; but then they 11 do so rapidly. . •

F. Engels

262 MARX AND ENGELS

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, May 12, 1804

Dear Sorge:

• . . For the past fifteen years, off and on, I have had trouble
with my eyes. I have followed medical advice and have reached
the point where they don't bother me at all so long as I don’t write
too much by artificial light.

I had a cold during the past few days which convinces me that
I am an old man at last. What I used to be able to treat as a trifle
laid me rather low for a week and kept me for fully two weeks more
under medical police-supervision. Even now I am supposed to be
careful for another two weeks. It was a mild bronchitis, and
among the elderly that can never be taken lightly, particularly when
they have tippled as freely and merrily as I have. Taking care is
hard enough for me, but after all Freyberger is right when he
orders me to do so, and then, as far as carrying it out is concerned,
Louise sees to that, watching over me with double and triple Argus
eyes. I think I wrote you already that we have left our domestic
establishment as much unchanged as possible by taking the young
husband in as a boarder. That is very nice and cheerful, but alas,
only as long as one is well. I have never been so badgered medically
in all my life, and, I must end up by consoling myself with the
thought that it’s all being done for my own good. . . .

Things here are as always. No possibility of obtaining any unity
among the labor leaders. But none the less the masses are moving
forward, slowly, to be sure, and just wrestling for consciousness, but
yet unmistakably. Things will develop here as they are doing in
France and as they did in Germany: unity will be forced as soon
as a number of independent workers (especially those not elected
with Liberal aid) are in Parliament. The Liberals are doing their
best to prevent this. (1) They don’t even extend the franchise to
those who already possess it on paper ; (2) on the contrary, they are
making the voters' lists more expensive for the candidates than
before, since they are to be drawn up twice a year and the costs of
drawing them up correctly are borne by the candidates or the
representatives of the political parties, and not by the state; and they
expressly refuse (3) the transfer of election costs to the state or the
municipality, as well as (4) members’ salaries, and (5) runoff elec-
tions. All these retentions of old abuses are a forthright prohibition
of eligibility for worker candidates in three-quarters of the con-
stituencies. Parliament is to remain a rich men*s club. And this at a
time when the rich are all turning Conservative because they are
satisfied with the status quo, and the Liberal Party is dying out and

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

263

growing more and more dependent upon workers’ votes. But the
Liberals insist that the workers should elect only bourgeois, no
workers and certainly no independent workers.

This will ruin the Liberals. Their lack of courage is losing
workers’ votes for them throughout the country, is dissolving their
small majority in Parliament, and if they don’t take very bold steps
at the eleventh hour, they are most likely lost. Then the Tories take
over and carry out what the Liberals were really supposed to do-
and not merely to promise. And then an independent workers party

is fairly certain. .

The Social-Democratic Federation here shares with your German-
American Socialists the distinction of being the only parties that
have managed to reduce the Marxian theory of development to a
rigid orthodoxy, which the workers are not to reach themselves by
their own class feeling, but which they have to gulp down as an
article of faith at once and without development. That is why both
of them remain mere sects and come, as Hegel says, from nothing
through nothing to nothing. I haven’t had time as yet to read
Schluter’s polemic with your Germans, but shall look through it
tomorrow. From former articles in the Volkszeitung the right tone
seems to have been struck. ...

Cordial regards.

Yours,

F. E.

ENGELS TO SORGE 1Q> ^

Dear Qver here still rese mbles the American move-

ment, save that it is somexohat ahead of you. The mast
the workers must form a party of their own a ? ain , . jf more
parties is getting stronger and stronger, it a £P in s p ut ^

than ever in the municipal election* i on November
various old traditional memories, anc it all over

turn this instinct into conscious action an to o ^ ^azi-

the country, encourage the persistence, m t ‘ ~ on s ectar i a n-
ness of thought and local isolation of action. - g • .Democratic
ism prevails in the labor

Federation, just like your German ocia 1 ‘ . n ort hodox

aged to transform our ^tteory mto , t e ^s to Hyndman, it

sect; it is narrow-mindedly exclusive **»«»

MARX AND ENGELS

264

has a thoroughly rotten tradition in international politics, which is
s taken from time to time, to be sure, but which hasn’t been broken
with as yet. The Independent Labor Party is extremely indefinite
as tactics, and its leader Keir Hardie is a supercunning Scot
whose demagogic tricks can't be trusted for a minute. Although he’s
a poor devil of a Scottish coal miner, he has founded a big weekly
Hie Labour Leader, which couldn’t have been established’ without

Liberain ^ * geUin S this mone y from Tory or

Liberal-Unionist, that is, anti-Gladstone and anti-Horne Rule

sources. There can be no doubt about it, and his notorious literary
connectmns m London as well as direct reports and his political
attnude confirm n. Consequently, owing to the desertion of the
1 ish and Radical voters, he may very easily lose his seat in Parlia-
ment at the 1895 general elections and that would be a stroke of
luck - the man is the greatest obstacle at present. He appears in
1 arliament only on demagogic occasions, in order to cut a figure
with phrases about the unemployed without accomplishing anything
or to address imbecilities to the Queen on the occasion of the birth
° a prince which is infinitely hackneyed and cheap in this country,
and so forth. Otherwise there are very good elements both in the
S.D.F. and in the I.L.P., especially in the provinces, but they are
scattered, although they have at least managed to foil all the efforts
of the leaders to incite the two organizations against each other.
John Burns stands pretty much alone politically; he is being
viciously attacked both by Hyndman and by Keir Hardie and acts
as if he despairs of the political organization of the workers and sets
his hopes solely on the trade unions. To be sure, he has had bad
experiences with the former and might starve if the Engineers'
Lnion didn’t pay him his Parliamentary salary. He is vain and has
allowed himself to be rather thoroughly ensnared by the Liberals,
that is, by the “social wing” of the Radicals. He attaches altogether
too much importance to the many single concessions that he has
forced through, but with all that he is the only really honest fellow
in the whole movement, that is, among the leaders, and he has a
thoroughly proletarian instinct which will, I believe, guide him
more correctly at the decisive moment than cunning and not dis-
interested calculation will the others.

On the Continent success is developing the appetite for more
success, and catching the peasant, in the literal sense of the word, is
becoming the fashion. First the French, in Nantes, declare through
Lafargue not only (what I had written to them) that it is not our
business to hasten by our direct interference the ruin of the small
peasants, which capitalism is effecting for us, but they add that we

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

265

must protect the small peasant directly against taxation, usury, and
big landowners. But we cannot join in this, first because it is stupid,
and second because it is impossible. And now Vollmar comes along
in Frankfurt, wanting to bribe the peasantry as a whole, though the
peasant he has to deal with in Upper Bavaria is not the debt-ridden
small peasant of the Rhineland, but the middle and even the big
peasant, who exploits male and female farmhands and sells cattle
and grain in quantity. And that cannot be done without giving up
the whole principle. We can win the Alpine peasants and the Lower
Saxon and Schleswig-Holstein rich peasants only if we sacrifice the
fieldhands and day laborers to them, and in doing that we lose
even more politically than we gain. The Frankfurt Party Conven-
tion did not take a stand on the question, and that is to the good
in so far as the matter will now be studied thoroughly; the people
who were there knew far too little about the peasantry and rural
conditions, which vary so fundamentally in different provinces, to
have been able to do anything but make decisions in the air. But
the matter has to be decided some time all the same. . . .

After the Belgian election victories the Belgians and the French
are preparing for regular contact between the Socialist parliamen-
tarians of the various countries, with periodic conferences. It is
questionable whether anything will come of it. For the present the
fifty French parliamentarians (of whom about twenty-six are con-
verted Radicals of doubtful quality) are talking very big, but there’s
a hitch in the affair: among the twenty-four original Socialists the
Marxists are privately wrangling in capital style with the Blanquists
on the one hand and with the Allemanists (possibilists) on the other.
Whether it will come to an open break is uncertain.

In addition to the other socialist papers I now get the Rumanian
(Muncaz) and the Bulgarian (formerly the Rabotnik , now the So-
cialist), and I am gradually familiarizing myself with the languages.
The Rumanians are going to get out a daily paper in Bucharest.

Of the other world events the death of the Russian Tsar will
probably bring about a change, either through inner movement or
through the financial difficulties and the impossibility of getting
money abroad. I cannot imagine that the present system will outlast
the change of sovereigns, which brings an idiot, physically and
mentally deranged by masturbation, to the helm. (This fact is
notorious in all the medical faculties; Professor Krause of Dorpat,
who had Nicholas under observation, told Tsar Alexander straight
to his face, at the latter’s request, that this, the masturbation, was
the cause of the illness. Thereupon he got a slap in the face from
the Tsar, resigned, returned the Order of St. Vladimir that had

266

MARX AND ENGELS

been sent after him, and went back to Germany, where he is now
telling the story.) If things start in Russia, however, Young Wilhelm
will also notice something in Germany. Then a liberal wind will
blow through all Europe, which can only be helpful to us now.

The war in China has given the old China a deathblow. Isolation
has become impossible; the introduction of railways, steam engines,
electricity, and large-scale industry has become a necessity if only
for reasons of military defense. But with it the old economic system
of small peasant agriculture, where the family also made its indus-
trial products itself, falls to pieces too, and with it the whole old
social system which made relatively dense population possible.
Millions will be turned out and forced to emigrate; and the mil-
lions will find their way to Europe, en masse. But as soon as Chinese
competition sets in on a mass scale, it will rapidly bring things to
a head in your country and over here, and thus the conquest of
China by capitalism will at the same time furnish the impulse for the
overthrow of capitalism in Europe and America. . . .

Yours,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, December 4, 1894

Dear Sorge:

Thanks for your and your wife’s birthday greetings! Between us,
the 75th isn’t starting off as sturdily as its predecessors. I am still
fresh and quick on my feet, fond of my work too and comparatively
able-bodied, but I find that stomach upsets and colds, which I used
to be able to treat with sovereign disdain, now require very respect-
ful treatment. But that’s nothing, if there’s nothing else. . . .

The Bavarians, who have become very, very opportunistic and are
almost an ordinary populist party by now (that is to say, most 0
the leaders and many of those who have recently joined the party),
had voted for the budget as a whole in the Bavarian Diet. Vollmar,
in particular, had started agitation among the peasantry in order to
win over, not the farm hands , but the well-to-do peasants of Upper
Bavaria— people who own 25 to 80 acres of land (10 to 30 hectares),
who therefore cannot manage at all without wage laborers. They
didn’t expect anything good to come of the Frankfurt party conven-
tion. They therefore organized a special Bavarian party convention
a week before the former, and there they established a downright
separatist federation by agreeing that the Bavarian delegates at

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

267

Frankfurt should vote in a bloc on all Bavarian questions in ac-
cordance with the Bavarian resolutions already agreed upon. They
came to Frankfurt, declared that they had to vote for the over-all
budget in Bavaria, it couldn’t be avoided, and that, furthermore,
this was a purely Bavarian question that did not concern anyone
else. In other words: if you vote anything that we Bavarians find
unwelcome, if you reject our ultimatum, then you are to blame if
a split occurs!

They appeared before the other delegates, who were unprepared
for all this, with these demands, hitherto unheard of in the party.
And since the cry for unity had been pushed to the utmost during
the past few years, no wonder that this viewpoint (under which
the party cannot exist) slipped through, in view of the many new
adherents won in recent years, and no decision was reached on the

budget question. ,

Now imagine that the Prussians, who are in the majority at the
convention, also should want to hold a preliminary convention and
adopt resolutions on the position of the Bavarians or other matters
that would be binding on all Prussian delegates, so that all the
delegates, the majority as well as the minority, voted en bloc for
these resolutions— what would then be the use of general party
conventions altogether? And what would the Bavarians say if the
Prussians were to do exactly what they have just done?

In short, the matter could not be allowed to remain as it was,
and so Bebel sprang into the breach. He has just placed the
question on the agenda again, and it is now being debated. Bebel
is by far the clearest and most farseeing head of them all; I have
been in regular correspondence with him for some fifteen years,
and we nearly always are in agreement. Liebknecht, on the other
hand, has dried up in his ideas considerably; the old South German-
federalistic-particularistic democrat still breaks out m him; and,
what is worst of all, he cannot stand having Bebel (who outgrew
him long ago) gladly allow him to be at his side but no longer let
him manage him. Moreover, he has organized the centra organ
Vorwarts so badly-mostly because of jealousy of his leadership
(with him wanting to manage everything and actually managing
nothing, so that he hampers everything) -that the paper, which
could be the biggest one in Berlin, is only fit to yie tie par >
surplus of 50,000 marks, but no political influence. ie neci ,
course, now wants to play the conciliator by mam force and is
scolding Bebel, but I think the latter will gain his point. In Berlin
the party executive and our people are already on his si e, an
am convinced that he will get a large majority if ie appea s o

268

MARX AND ENGELS

party membership. For the present we’ll have to wait. I would
send you the Vollmariades, etc., too, but I have only one copy for
my own use. . . .

Your old

F. E.

ENGELS TO SCHLUETER

London, January 1, 1895

Dear Schl liter:

Your letter of August 1 1 is still unanswered, and I still owe you
my thanks for the Census Compendium, which I received in good
order. But I have been overburdened with all sorts of work, and
the urgent party and business correspondence has made it almost
impossible for me to carry on any private correspondence; Sorge has
also had to suffer this fate. You will have heard from him that
Louise Kautsky is now married to Dr. Freyberger and the mother
of a strong and healthy little girl, and that we have all moved
together to 41, Regent’s Park Road.

As Sorge will have told you, I have sent you a copy of Volume III
of Capital , addressed to the Volkszeitung because 1 don’t know
whether your Hoboken address is still good. In any event, the
V olkszeitung seemed safer to me. I couldn't carry out your commis-
sion concerning Ede, as the latter had been engaged for Die Neue
Zeit in the same capacity long ago. 1 I should have written you
this; please excuse me.

Over here things are going about as they are over there. The
socialist instinct is becoming ever stronger among the masses, but
whenever the instinctive drives have to be converted into clear
demands and ideas, the people fall asunder. Some join the Social-
Democratic Federation, others the Independent Labour Party, still
others stay in the Trades Union Organization, etc., etc. In short, a
lot of sects and no party. Almost all the leaders are unreliable, the
candidates for the top leadership are very numerous but far from
outstandingly fitted for the job, and the two big bourgeois parties
stand ready, money bag in hand, to buy up whomever they can.
For the so-called “democracy” over here is largely limited by
indirect restrictions. A periodical costs a tremendous amount of
money, as does a candidacy for Parliament and living as a member
of Parliament — if only because of the enormous correspondence it

1 Schliiter had apparently asked that Engels secure Eduard Bernstein as the
London correspondent of the New-Yorker Volkszeitung.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

269

entails. Revision of the miserably kept voters’ lists likewise costs
lots of money, and up to now only the two official parties can defray
the costs. Hence, anyone who does not sell himself to one of these
parties finds it hard to become a candidate. In all these matters
people over here are far behind the Continent, and they are begin-
ning to realize it. Then there is no second ballot, the relative
majority or, as you Americans say, a plurality being sufficient for
election. Everything is arranged with only two parties in mind; a
third party can at most tip the balance one way or the other until
it is as strong as the other two.

Nor are the local trade unions able to bring off anything like the
Berlin beer boycott — an arbitration court like the one achieved
there is still something unattainable over here.

On the other hand (as is the case with you in America), once the
workers know what they want, then the state, the land, the indus-
tries, everything will belong to them.

All this is for you, not for the Volkszeitung .

Louise sends you her best regards, and both of us wish you a
Happy New Year!

Yours,

F. Engels

ENGELS TO SORGE

London, January 16, 1895

Dear Sorge:

. . . The temporary decline of the movement in America has
attracted my attention for some time now, and the German socialists
won’t stop it. America is the youngest, but also the oldest country
in the world. Over there you have old-fashioned furniture styles
alongside those you have invented all yourselves, cabs in Boston
such I last saw in 1838 in London, and in the mountains stagecoaches
dating from the seventeenth century alongside the Pullman cars,
and in the same way you keep all the intellectual old clothes dis-
carded in Europe. Anything that is out of date over here can survive
in America for one or two generations. Karl Heinzen, for instance,
not to mention religious and spiritualist superstition. Thus the old
Lassalleans still survive among you, and men like Sanial, who would
be superannuated in France today, can still play a role over there.
That is due, on the one hand, to the fact that America is only now
beginning to have time, beyond concern for material production
and enrichment, for free intellectual labor and the preparatory edu-

270

MARX AND ENGELS

cation that this requires; and, on the other hand, to the duality of
American development, which is still engaged in the primary task —
clearing the tremendous virgin area — but is already compelled to
enter the competition for first place in industrial production. Hence
the ups and downs of the movement, depending upon whether the
mind of the industrial worker or that of the pioneering farmer
gains predominance in the average man's head. Things will be
different in a couple of years, and then great progress will be ob-
served. For the development of the Anglo-Saxon race with its old
Germanic freedom is quite peculiar, slow, zigzag in form (here in
England small zigzags, in your country colossal ones), a tacking
against the wind, but it advances none the less.

Things will be very complicated here in Europe during the new
year. The peasant problem in Germany has been pushed to the
background by the Sedition Bill, and this has been accomplished
by Young Wilhelm (his song to Angir, the ruler of the waves, is
merely the result of the seasickness he always gets, and that is why he
always sails with his fleet to the calm Norwegian fjords). The
young man has thrown everything in Germany into disorder; no
one knows where he stands or what will happen tomorrow. The
confusion in the governing groups, as in the ruling classes in
general, is increasing day by day, so that the only ones with smiling
faces in the debate on the Sedition Bill were our people. It is too
good: the antirevolutionists are headed by the man who can't
abstain from revolutionizing for five minutes. And now this Young
Wilhelm has fallen into the hands of the Junkers, who, in order to
keep him in the mood in which he is ready to give them augmented
state aid for their bankrupt estates, are now enticing him with the
prospect of new taxes and new soldiers and warships through their
haughty advocacy of the regis voluntas suprema lex [the king's
will is the supreme law], and are forcing him to dissolution of the
Reichstag and a coup d'dtat. Yet these Messrs. Roller and Co., who
are so overbearing in their phrases, have so little courage that they
are already feeling all sorts of uneasiness, and it is still doubtful
whether they won’t grow afraid at the moment for action.

And then France! There, as in Italy, the bourgeoisie has plunged
head over heels into corruption in a way that would put America
to shame. For three years everything in both of these countries has
turned on finding a bourgeois cabinet that is — not free of corrup-
tion — yet so little compromised directly in scandals that have come
to public notice, as to be capable of support by Parliament without
outraging the commonest decency too violently.

In Italy Crispi is holding on for a little while only because the

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

271

King and the Crown Prince are as deeply involved in the bank
scandals as he is himself. In France our forty-five to fifty Socialist
deputies have now effected the fall of a Cabinet for the third time,
because of direct corruption, and Casimir-P^rier tumbled after it.
Presumably he wants to have himself re-elected by an immense
majority as the sole savior of society, thus obtaining a stronger
position. But that is a hazardous game. In any event everything is
shaky in France, too, and we may have new elections this year in
Germany and France in addition to Britain, this time of decisive
importance. What is more, a crisis of the first rank in Italy, and an
unavoidable reform of the suffrage in Austria; in short, things
are becoming critical throughout Europe. . . .

Your

F. E.

APPENDICES

PREFACE TO THE RUSSIAN TRANSLATION OF LETTERS FROM
J. F. BECKER, J. DIETZGEN, F. ENGELS, K. MARX , AND OTHERS
TO F. A. SORGE AND OTHERS

By V. I. Lenin

The collection of letters by Marx, Engels, Dietzgen, Becker, and other
leaders of the international labor movement of the past century' here pre-
sented to the Russian public is a needed addition to our foremost Marxist
literature.

We will not dwell in detail here on the importance of these letters tor the
history of socialism and for a comprehensive treatment of the activities of
Marx and Engels. This aspect of the matter requires no explanation. We
shall only note that an understanding of the published letters necessitates
an acquaintance with the principal works on the history of the Interna-
tional (see Jaeckh, The International, Russian translation in the Znantye
edition), on the history of the German and American labor movements
(see Franz Mehring, History of German Social-Democracy, and Moms
Hillquit, History of Socialism in the United States), etc.

Neither do we intend here to attempt a general outline of the contents
of this correspondence or to appraise the importance of the various his-
torical periods with which it deals. Mehring has done this extreme y we
in his article, "Der Sorgesche Briefwechsel •

The lessons that the militant proletariat must draw from an acquaint
ance with the intimate sides of Marx’s and Engels’ activities over the
course of nearly thirty years (1867-1895) are of particular interest to
Russian Socialists in the present revolutionary period. It is, therefore, no
surprising that in our Social-Democratic literature the irst encea\ors o
acquaint the readers with Marx’s and Engels letters to Sorge were ma e
in connection with the “burning” issues of Social-Democratic tactics in t e
Russian revolution (Plekhanov’s Sovremennaya Zhizn and the Me ^ snevl
Otkliki). And it is to an appreciation of those passages m the P ub ^ed
correspondence that are especially important from the stanc point o
contemporary tasks of the workers’ party in Russia that \se mten to era \

the attention of our readers. .

Marx and Engels deal most frequently in their letters with the burning

questions of the British, American, and German labor mmemen s.
is natural, because they were Germans who at that time ive in ng
and corresponded with their American comrades. Marx expressec ims

1 “The Sorge Correspondence,” Die Neue Zeit, Vol. 25. Nos. 1 and 2.

*73

274

MARX AND ENGELS

much more frequently and in much greater detail on the French labor
movement, and particularly on the Paris Commune, in the letters he wrote
to the German Social-Democrat, Kugelmann. 1

A comparison of the comments by Marx and Engels on the Anglo-
American and German labor movements is highly instructive. This
comparison acquires all the greater importance when we remember that
Germany on the one hand, and England and America on the other,
represent different stages of capitalist development and different forms of
domination by the bourgeoisie, as a class, of the entire political life of
these countries. From the scientific standpoint, what we observe here is a
sample of materialist dialectics, of the ability to bring out and stress the
different points and different sides of a question in accordance with the
specific peculiarities of various political and economic conditions. From
the standpoint of the practical policy and tactics of the workers’ party,
what we see here is a sample of the way in which the creators of the
Communist Manifesto defined the tasks of the militant proletariat in
accordance with the different stages of the national labor movement in
various countries.

What Marx and Engles most of all criticize in British and American
socialism is its isolation from the labor movement. The burden of all
their numerous comments on the Social Democratic Federation in England
and on the American Socialists is the accusation that they have reduced
Marxism to a dogma, to a “rigid ( starre ) orthodoxy/* that they consider
it "a credo and not a guide to action/* 2 that they are incapable of adapt-
ing themselves to the theoretically helpless, but living, powerful, mass labor
movement marching past them.

“Had we from 1864 to 1873 insisted on working together only with
those who openly adopted our platform/* Engels exclaims in his letter of
January 27, 1887, “where should we be today?” 8 And in an earlier letter
(December 28, 1886), in reference to the influence of the ideas of Henry
George on the American working class, he writes:

“A million or two of workingmen's votes next November for a bona
fide workingmen’s party is worth infinitely more at present than a hundred
thousand votes for a doctrinally perfect platform.” 4

These are very interesting passages. There are Social-Democrats in our
country who hastened to make use of them in defense of the idea of a
“labor congress” or something along the lines of Larin’s “broad labor
party.” Why not in defense of a “Left bloc,” we would ask these precipi-
tate “utilizers” of Engels. The letters from which the quotations are taken
relate to a time when the American workers voted at the elections for
Henry George. Mrs. [Florence Kelley] Wischnewetzky — an American who
married a Russian and who translated Engels’ works— asked him, as may
be seen from Engels’ reply, to make a thorough criticism of Henry George.
Engels writes (December 28, 1886) that the time has not yet come for that,

x Karl Marx, Letters to Kugelmann, International Publishers, 1934.

•See p. 163.

•See p. 168.

4 See p. 167.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

275

for it is better to let the workers* party begin to consolidate itself, even if
on a not altogether immaculate program. Later on the workers will
themselves come to understand what is at stake, will “learn from their
own mistakes,” but “anything that might delay or prevent that national
consolidation of the workingmen’s party— on no matter what platform—
I should consider a great mistake. ...” 1

Engels, of course, perfectly understood and frequently pointed out all
the absurdity and reactionary character of the ideas of Henry George from
the Socialist standpoint. In the Sorge correspondence there is a most
interesting letter from Karl Marx dated June 20, 1881, in which he
characterizes Henry George as an ideologist of the radical bourgeoisie.
“Theoretically the man [Henry George] is utterly backward ( total
arribre)" wrote Marx. 2 Yet Engels was not afraid to join with this veritable
social reactionary in the elections, provided there were people who could
warn the masses of “the consequences of their own mistakes” (Engels,
in the letter dated November 29, 1886). 2

Regarding the Knights of Labor, an organization of American workers
existing at that time, Engels wTote in the same letter:

“The weakest (literally: rottenest, faulste) side of the K. of L. was
their political neutrality . . . . The first great step of importance for every
country newly entering into the movement is always the constitution of the
workers as an independent political party, no matter how, so long as it is
a distinct workers* party.” 4

It is obvious that absolutely nothing in defense of a leap from Social-
Democracy to a non-party labor congress, etc., can be deduced from this.
But whoever wants to escape Engels’ accusation of degrading Marxism to
a “dogma,” “orthodoxy,” “sectarianism,” etc., must conclude from this
that a joint election campaign with radical “social-reactionaries” is some-
times permissible.

But what is more interesting, of course, is to dwell not so much on these
American-Russian parallels (we had to touch on them to answer our
opponents), as on the fundamental characteristics of the British and Ameri-
can labor movement. These characteristics are: the absence of any big,
nationwide, democratic problems whatever facing the proletariat; the
complete subjection of the proletariat to bourgeois politics; the sectarian
isolation of groups, handfuls of Socialists from the proletariat; not the
slightest success of the Socialists in the elections among the working
masses, etc. Whoever forgets these fundamental conditions and sets out to
draw broad conclusions from “American-Russian parallels” displays ex-
treme superficiality.

If Engels lays so much stress on the economic organizations of the
workers in such circumstances, it is because he is dealing with the most
firmly established democratic systems, which confront the proletariat with
purely socialist tasks.

If Engels stresses the importance of an independent workers’ party, even
though with a bad program, it is because he is dealing with countries

1 See p. 167. 3 See p. 164.

•See p. 128. 4 See p. 163.

MARX AND ENGELS

276

where hitherto there had not been even a hint of political independence of
the workers, where, in politics above all, the workers trailed, and still
trail, after the bourgeoisie.

It would be making a mockery of Marx's historical method to attempt to
apply the conclusions drawn from such considerations to countries or
historical situations where the proletariat had established its party before
the bourgeois liberals, where the proletariat does not have even the ghost
of a tradition of voting for bourgeois politicians, and where it is not
socialist, but bourgeois-democratic tasks that are up for immediate
decision.

Our thought will become even clearer to the reader if we compare
Engels opinions of the British and American movements with his opinions
of the German movement.

There is an abundance of such opinions in the published corre-
spondence, and extremely interesting ones. And what runs like a red
thread through all these opinions is something quite different, namely, a
warning against the “right wing" of the workers' party, a merciless
(sometimes-as with Marx in 1877-79 — a furious) war upon opportunism
in Social-Democracy.

Let us first confirm this by quotations from the letters, and then make
an evaluation of this phenomenon.

First of all, we must here note the opinions expressed by Marx on
Hochberg and Co. Franz Mehring, in his article “Der Sorgesche Brief-
wechsel” endeavors to tone down Marx’s attacks, as well as Engels’
subsequent attacks on the opportunists — excessively so in our opinion. As
regards Hochberg and Co. in particular, Mehring insists on his view that
Marx’s judgment of Lassalle and the Lassalleans was incorrect. 1 But, we
repeat, what interests us here is not an historical appraisal of whether
Marx's attacks on particular Socialists were correct or exaggerated, but
appraisal in principle of definite currents in socialism on the whole.

While complaining about the compromises of the German Social-
Democrats with the Lassalleans and with Diihring (letter of October 19,
1877), Marx also condemns the compromise “with a whole gang of half-
mature students and super-wise doctors” (“doctor” in German is a
scientific degree corresponding to our “candidate” or ‘‘university gradu-
ate, class I”), ‘‘who want to give socialism a ‘higher, ideal’ turn, that is to
say, to replace its materialist basis (which calls for serious, objective study
by anyone) by modern mythology, with its goddessess of Justice, Freedom,
Equality, and Fraternity. Dr. Hochberg, who publishes the Zuktinft, is
a representative of this tendency and has ‘bought his way’ into the party —
with the ‘noblest’ intentions, I assume, but I do not give a damn for
‘intentions.’ Anything more miserable than his program or the Zukunft
has seldom seen the light of day with more ‘modest’ presumption.' ” 2

In another letter, written almost two years later (September 19, 1879).
Marx rebuts the gossip that Engels and he were behind J. f Johann] Most,

1 Documents discovered in Berlin in 1924, revealing relations between Lassalle
and Bismarck, proved that Marx was right and Mehring wrong.— Ed.

* See pp. 1 16-17.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

277

and he gives Sorge a detailed account of his attitude towards the oppor-
tunists in the German Social-Democratic Party. The Zukunft was run by
Hochberg, Schramm, and Ed. Bernstein. Marx and Engels refused to
participate in such a publication, and when the question was raised of
establishing a new party organ with the participation of this same
Hochberg and with his financial assistance, Marx and Engels first demand-
ed the acceptance of their nominee, Hirsch, as responsible editor to
exercise control over this “crew of doctors, students and professorial
socialists’’ and then directly addressed a circular letter to Bebel, Lieb-
knecht, and other leaders of the Social-Democratic Party, warning them
that they would openly combat ‘‘such dissipation (Verlu derung— an
even stronger word in German) of the party and its theory,” unless the
tendency of Hochberg, Schramm, and Bernstein changed.

This was the period in the German Social-Democratic Party that
Mehring described in his History as “a year of confusion” (Ein Jahr der
Verwirrung). After the Anti-Socialist Law, the party did not at once find
the right path, first swinging over to the anarchism of Most and the
opportunism of Hochberg and Co.

‘‘These fellow's,” Marx writes of the latter, ‘‘zeros theoretically, incom-
petent practically — want to take the teeth out of socialism (which they
have trimmed up according to university recipes) and out of the Social-
Democratic Party in particular, to enlighten the workers or, as they put it,
feed them ‘the elements of education’ through their confused half-
knowledge, and, above all, to make the party respectable in the eyes of
the philistine. They are poor counter-revolutionary windbags.” The
result of Marx’s ‘‘furious” attack was that the opportunists retreated and
disappeared from sight. In a letter of November 19, 1879, Marx
announces that Hochberg has been removed from the editorial board and
that all the influential leaders of the party — Bebel, Liebknecht, Bracke,
etc. — have repudiated his ideas. The Social-Democratic Party organ, the
Sozialdemokrat , began to appear under the editorship of Vollmar, who at
that time belonged to the revolutionary wing of the party. A year later
(November 5, 1880), Marx relates that he and Engels were constantly com-
bating the “miserable” way in which the Sozialdemokrat was being managed
and often clashed sharply (wobei's oft scharf hergeht.f Liebknecht visited
Marx in 1880 and promised an “improvement” in all respects.

Peace was restored, and the war never came out into the open. Hochberg
retired, and Bernstein became a revolutionary Social-Democrat — at least
until Engels’ death in 1895.

On June 20, 1882, Engels writes to Sorge and speaks of this struggle as
already a thing of the past:

“In Germany things are going ahead excellently on the whole. To be
sure, Messrs. Literati of the party have tried to turn it toward reactionary,
tame-bourgeois education, but this failed utterly. The infamies to which
the Social-Democratic workers are everywhere subjected have made them
everywhere much more revolutionary than they were even three years
ago. . . . These people (the party literati) would like to beg off the

l See p. 123.

MARX AND ENGELS

*78

Socialist Law at any price by mildness, meekness, toadying, and tameness

iT^Tr h h akCS V° rt "? rk ° £ their literai 7 earnings. As soon as the law
is abolished the split will probably become an open one, and the

lerecks, Hochbergs, etc., will form a separate Right wing, where we can
negotiate with them from case to case until they finally collapse We said
Ais immediate y after the passage of the Socialist Law, when Hochberg and
Schramm published m the Jahrbuch what was under the circumstances a
quite infamous estimate of the party’s activity up to that time and
demanded of the party more ‘eddicated’ ( jebildetes instead of gebildetes-
Engels is alluding to the Berlin accent of the German literati), respectable
Sunday-best manners .” 1 ' v '

This forecast of a Bernsteiniad made in 1882 was strikingly confirmed in
1898 and subsequent years. And from that time on, particularly after
Manes death, Engels, it may be said without exaggeration, was untiring
m his efforts to straighten out what the German opportunists had distorted.

The end of 1884. The “petty-bourgeois prejudices” of the German
oocial-Democratic Reichstag deputies, who voted for the steamship subsidy
(Dampfersubvention , see Mehring’s History) are condemned. Engels in-
forms Sorge that he has to carry on a great deal of correspondence on this
subject (letter of December 31, i884). a

1885. Assessing the whole Dampfersubvention affair, Engels writes (June
3) that “it almost resulted in a split.” The “philistinism” of the Social-
Democratic deputies was “ colossal/ ' “A petty-bourgeois Socialist fraction
is unavoidable in a country like Germany,” Engels says.*

1887. Engels replies to Sorge, who had written that the party was dis-
gracing itself by electing such deputies as Viereck (a Social-Democrat of
the Hochberg type). That can't be helped — Engels excuses himself — the
workers’ party cannot find good deputies for the Reichstag.

The gentlemen of the right wing know that they are being tolerated
merely because of the Socialist Law, and will be thrown out at once the
day the party regains freedom of action.”

And, in general, it is preferable for “the party to be better than its
parliamentary heroes — rather than the other way round” (March 3, i 887 ).
Liebknecht is a conciliator — Engels complains — he always glosses over
differences by phrases. But when it comes to a split, he will be with us at
the decisive moment. 4

1889. ^ wo International Social-Democratic congresses in Paris. The
opportunists (headed by the French possibilists) split away from the
revolutionary Social-Democrats. Engels (he was then sixty-eight years old)
flings himself into the battle like a young man. A number of letters (from
January 12 to July 20, 1889), are devoted to the fight against the oppor-
tunists. Not only they, but also the Germans-Liebknecht, Bebel, and
others — are castigated for their attitude of compromise.

The possibilists have sold out to the government, writes Engels on
January 12, 1889. And he accuses the members of the British Social-
Democratic Federation of having allied themselves with the possibilists.*

“The writing and running about in connection with this damned con-
gress leave me hardly any time for anything else.” (May 11, 1889.)*

1 See p. 132. 4 See p. 176.

* See p. 144. 8 See pp. 2O8-O9.

•Seep. 147. e Seep.2ia.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

279

The possibilists are busy, but our people are asleep, Engels writes angrily.
Now even Auer and Schippel are demanding that we attend the possibilist
congress. But this “at last” opened Liebknecht's eyes. Engels, together with
Bernstein, writes pamphlets (signed by Bernstein— Engels calls them “our
pamphlets”) against the opportunists.

“With the exception of the S.D.F., the possibilists haven't a single
socialist organisation in all Europe. [June 8, 1889.] They are therefore
falling back on the non-socialist trade unions [let our advocates of a
broad labor party, of a labor congress, etc., take note!] They will
get one Knight of Labor from America.”

The adversary is the same as in the fight against the Bakuninists:

“With the anarchist flag merely exchanged for the possibilist one: the
selling of principles to the bourgeoisie for small-scale concessions, especially
in return for well-paid jobs for the leaders (city council, labor exchange,
etc.).”

Brousse (the leader of the possibilists) and Hyndman (the leader of the
S.D.F., united with the possibilists) attack “authoritarian Marxism” and
want to form the “nucleus of a new International.”

“You have no idea of the Germans* naivete. It has cost me tremendous
effort to convince even Bebel of what it really means.” (June 8, 1889.) 1
And when the two congresses met, when the revolutionary Social-
Democrats numerically exceeded the possibilists (united with the trade
unionists, the S.D.F., part of the Austrians, etc.), Engels was jubilant (July
17, 1889).* He was glad that the conciliatory plans and proposals of
Liebknecht and others had failed (July 20, 1889).

“It serves our sentimental conciliatory brethren right, to get this stiff
kick in their tenderest spot for all their protestations of friendship. That
will probably cure them for some time to come.”*

. . . Mehring was right when he said (“Der Sorgesche BriefwechseV *)
that Marx and Engels knew little about “good form”:

“If they did not think long over every blow they dealt, neither did they
whimper over every blow they received. ‘If they think their needlepricks
can pierce my old well-tanned and pachydermatous hide, they are mis-
taken,’ Engels once wrote.”

And this insensibility they had acquired, says Mehring of Marx and
Engels, they took for granted in others as well.

1893. The settling of accounts with the “Fabians,” which obviously
suggests itself . . . for judging the Bemsteinians (was it not among the
“Fabians” in England that Bernstein “learned” his opportunism?).

“The Fabians here in London are a band of careerists who have under-
standing enough to realize the inevitability of the social revolution, but
who could not possibly entrust this tremendous job to the crude proletariat
alone and are therefore kind enough to set themselves at the head. Fear
of the revolution is their fundamental principle. They are the ‘eddicated*
par excellence. Their socialism is municipal socialism; the community,
not the nation, should become the owner of the means of production, at
least temporarily. This socialism of theirs is then represented as an extreme
but inevitable consequence of bourgeois liberalism, and from this follow
x See pp. 815-I6. *See p. 219.

•See p. 217.

28 o

MARX AND ENGELS

their tactics, not to fight the Liberals decisively as opponents, but to push
them on to socialist conclusions: therefore to intrigue with them, to
permeate Liberalism with socialism — not to put up Socialist candidates
against Liberals, but to palm them off and force them upon the Liberals,
or to deceive the latter into taking them. They naturally do not realize
that in doing this they are either betrayed and deceived themselves or else
are betraying socialism.

“With great industry they have produced, among all sorts of rubbish,
some good propaganda writing as well, in fact, the best that the English
have turned out in this respect. But as soon as they come to their specific
tactic: hushing up the class struggle, it gets rotten. Hence, too, their
fanatical hatred of Marx and of all of us— because of the class struggle.

“These people have, of course, a considerable bourgeois following and
hence money. . . . ” l

A CLASSICAL APPRAISAL OF THE OPPORTUNISM OF THE INTELLECTUALS IN
SOCIAL-DEMOCRACY

1894. The Peasant Question. “On the Continent/’ Engels writes on
November 10, 1894, “success is developing the appetite for more success,
and catching the peasant, in the literal sense of the word, is becoming the
fashion. First the French, in Nantes, declare through Lafargue not only
. . . that it is not our business to hasten . . . the ruin of the small peasants,
which capitalism is effecting for us, but they add that we must protect
the small peasant directly against taxation, usury, and big landowners.
But we cannot join in this, first because it is stupid and second because it
is impossible. And now Vollmar comes along in Frankfort, wanting to
bribe the peasantry as a whole, though the peasant he has to deal with in
Upper Bavaria is not the debt-ridden small peasant of the Rhineland, but
the middle and even the big peasant, who exploits his male and female
farmhands and sells cattle and grain in quantity. And that cannot be done
without giving up the whole principle.” 2

1894, December 4.

“ . . . The Bavarians, who have become very, very opportunistic and are
almost an ordinary populist party by now (that is to say, most of the
leaders and many of those who have recently joined the party), had
voted in the Bavarian Diet for the budget as a whole. Vollmar, in
particular, had started agitation among the peasantry in order to win
over, not the farm hands, but the well-to-do peasants of Upper Bavaria—
people who own 25 to 80 acres of land (10 to 30 hectares), who therefore
cannot manage at all without wage laborers ” 8

We thus see that for more than ten years Marx and Engels systematically
and unswervingly fought opportunism in the German Social-Democratic
Party and attacked intellectual philistinism and petty-bourgeois narrow-
mindedness in socialism. This is an extremely important fact. The general
public knows that German Social-Democracy is regarded as a model of the

1 See p. 247. * See p. 266.

*See pp. 264-65.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

28l

Marxist policy and tactics of the proletariat, but it does not know what
a constant war the founders of Marxism had to wage against the “right
wing” (Engels' expression) of that party. And it is no accident that soon
after Engels’ death this war turned from a concealed into an open war.
This was the inevitable result of the decades of historical development
of German Social-Democracy.

And now we very clearly perceive the two lines of Engels’ (and Marx's)
recommendations, directives, corrections, threats, and exhortations. They
most insistently called upon the British and American Socialists to merge
with the labor movement and to eradicate the narrow and hidebound
sectarian spirit from their organizations. They most insistently taught the
German Social-Democrats: do not succumb to philistinism, to “parliamen-
tary idiocy” (Marx’s expression in the letter of September 19, 1879), 1 to
petty-bourgeois intellectual opportunism. 4

Is it not characteristic that our Social-Democratic gossips have noisily
proclaimed the recommendations of the first kind and have pursed their
lips, remained silent about the recommendations of the second kind? Is
not such one-sidedness in appraising Marx’s and Engels' letters the best
indication, in a sense, of our, Russian, Social-Democratic “one-sidedness”?

At the present time, when the international labor movement is display-
ing symptoms of profound ferment and wavering, when extremes of oppor-
tunism, “parliamentary idiocy,” and philistine reformism have evoked
opposite extremes of revolutionary syndicalism, the general line of Marx’s
and Engels’ “corrections” to British, American, and German socialism
acquires exceptional importance.

In countries where there are no Social-Democratic workers' parties, no
Social-Democratic members of parliament, no systematic and consistent
Social-Democratic policy either at elections or in the press, etc, Marx and
Engels taught the Socialists at all costs to rid themselves of narrow sectar-
ianism and join the labor movement so as to rouse the proletariat
politically, for in the last third of the nineteenth century the proletariat
displayed almost no political independence either in England or America.
In diese countries — where bourgeois-democratic historical tasks were
almost entirely absent — the political arena was wholly filled by the
triumphant and self-complacent bourgeoisie, which has no equal anywhere
in the world in the art of deceiving, corrupting, and bribing the workers.

To think that these recommendations of Marx and Engels to the British
and American labor movement can be simply and directly applied to
Russian conditions is to use Marxism not in order to elucidate its method,
not in order to study the concrete historical peculiarities of the labor
movement in certain countries, but in order to settle petty factional,
intellectual accounts.

On the other hand, in a country where the bourgeois-democratic revo-
lution was still incomplete, where “military despotism, embellished with
parliamentary forms” (Marx’s expression in his Critique of the Gotha
Programme) prevailed, and still prevails, where the proletariat had long
ago been drawn into politics and w r as pursuing a Social-Democratic policy,
what Marx and Engels feared most of all in such a country was parliamen-

J See p. i2i.

282

MARX AND ENGELS

tary vulgarization and the philistine compromising of the tasks and scope
of the labor movement.

It is all the more our duty to emphasize and advance this side of
Marxism in the period of the bourgeois-democratic revolution in Russia
because in our country an extensive, “brilliant,” and rich bourgeois-liberal
press is vociferously trumpeting to the proletariat the “exemplary” loyalty,
the parliamentary legalism, the modesty, and the moderation of the
neighboring German labor movement.

This mercenary lie of the bourgeois betrayers of the Russian revolution
is not due to accident or to the personal depravity of certain past or
future ministers in the Cadet 1 camp. It is motivated by profound eco-
nomic interests of the Russian liberal landowners and bourgeois liberals.
And in combating this lie, this “stupefying the masses” (, Massenver -
dummung — Engels’ expression in his letter of November 29, i886), a the
letters of Marx and Engels should serve as an indispensable weapon for
all Russian Socialists.

The mercenary lie of the bourgeois liberals holds up to the people the
exemplary “modesty” of the German Social-Democrats. The leaders of
these Social-Democrats, the founders of the theory of Marxism, tell us:

“The revolutionary language and action of the Frenchmen made the
whining of the Vierecks and Co. (the opportunist Social-Democrats in the
German Reichstag Social-Democratic fraction) appear feebler than ever
(the reference is to the formation of a labor party in the French Chamber
and to the Decazeville strike, which split the French Radicals from the
French proletariat), and thus only Bebel and Liebknecht spoke in the last
debate . . . both of them very good. With this debate we can show our
faces in respectable society again, which was by no means the case with
all of them. In general, it is good for the Germans to have their leader-
ship (of the international socialist movement) disputed somewhat, espe-
cially since they have elected so many philistine elements (which was
unavoidable, to be sure). In Germany everything becomes philistine in
quiet periods ; the spur of French competition then becomes absolutely
necessary [Lenin's emphasis], . . (Letter of April 29, 1886.) 8

Such are the lessons which must be drawn most firmly of all by the
R.S.D.L.P. 3 which is ideologically dominated by the influence of German
Social-Democracy. 4

These lessons are taught us not by any particular passage in the cor-
respondence of the greatest men of the nineteenth century, but by the
whole spirit and substance of their comradely and frank criticism, free
from diplomacy and petty considerations, of the international experience
of the proletariat.

How far all the letters of Marx and Engels were indeed imbued with
this spirit may also be seen from the following passages, which are, to

1 Constitutional Democrats, bourgeois-monarchist party in tsarist Russia.-£d.

* See p. 164. 8 See p. 155.

4 Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party, renamed Communist Party in 1917*

-Ed. . _ ^

•The Mensheviks were still members of the Russian Social -Democratic Party

at the time of the writing of this preface.— Ed.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 283

be sure, comparatively fragmentary, but, on the other hand, are highly
characteristic.

In 1889 a young, fresh movement of untrained, unskilled, ordinary
laborers (gasworkers, dockers, etc.) began in England, a movement full of
a new and revolutionary spirit. Engels was delighted with it. He refers
exultingly to the part played by Tussy, Marx’s daughter, who agitated
among these workers.

“The most repulsive thing here,” he says, writing from London on
December 7, 1889, “is the bourgeois ‘respectability’ that has sunk deep into
the bone of the workers. The division of society into innumerable strata,
each recognized without question, each with its own pride but also its
inborn respect for its ‘betters’ and ‘superiors,’ is so old and firmly estab-
lished that the bourgeois still find it fairly easy to have their bait accepted.

I am not at all sure, for instance, that John Bums is not secretly prouder
of his popularity with Cardinal Manning, the Lord Mayor, and the
bourgeoisie in general than of his popularity with his own class. And
Champion — an ex-lieutenant — has always intrigued with bourgeois and,
especially, with conservative elements, preached socialism at the parsons’
Church Congress, etc. And even Tom Mann, whom I regard as the best of
the lot, likes to mention that he will be lunching with the Lord Mayor.
If one compares this with the French, one realizes what a revolution is
good for after all.” 1

Comment is superfluous.

Another example. In 1891 there was danger of a European war. Engels
corresponded on the subject with Bebel, and they agreed that in the event
of Russia attacking Germany, the German Socialists must desperately
fight the Russians and any allies of the Russians.

“If Germany is crushed, then we shall be too, while in the most favorable
case the struggle will be such a violent one that Germany will be able to
maintain itself only by revolutionary means, so that very possibly we shall
be forced to come into power and play the part of 1 793 - (Letter of
October 24, 1891.) 2

Let this be noted by those opportunists who cried from the housetops
that “Jacobin” prospects for the Russian workers’ party in 1905 were
un-Social-Democratic! Engels squarely suggests to Bebel the possibility of
the Social-Democrats having to participate in a provisional go\ eminent.

Holding such views on the tasks of Social-Democratic workers parties,
Marx and Engels were filled with the most fervent faith in the Russian
revolution and its great worldwide significance. We see this ardent f x P ec ”
tation of a revolution in Russia in this correspondence over a period of
nearly twenty years.

Here is Marx’s letter of September 27, 1877. The Eastern crisis arouses

Marx’s enthusiasm: .

“Russia ... has long been standing on the threshold of an upheaval;
all the elements for it are prepared. The gallant Turks have hastened the
explosion by years through the blows they have dealt. . . . The up ea\a

x See p. 221.

•See p. 238.

MARX AND ENGELS

284

will begin secundum artem (according to the rules of the art) with some
playing at constitutionalism [Lenin’s emphasis], and then there will be a
fine row (if y aura tin beau tapage). If Mother Nature is not particularly
hard on us we shall still live to see the fun!”* Marx was then fifty-one
years old.) <

Mother Nature did not — and could not very well — permit Marx to live
“to see the fun.” But he foretold the "playing at constitutionalism," and
it is as though his words were written yesterday about the First and
Second Russian Dumas. 8 And we know that the warning to the people
against “playing at constitutionalism” was the "living soul” of the boycott
tactics so detested by the liberals and opportunists. . . .

Here is Marx's letter of November 5, 1880. He is delighted with the
success of Capital in Russia, and takes the part of the Populists against
the newly arisen Black Redistribution group. Marx correctly perceives the
anarchistic elements in the latter’s views, and, not knowing and at the
time having no opportunity of knowing the future evolution of the
Black Redistribution Populists into Social-Democrats, Marx attacks the
Black Redistribution group with all the power of his trenchant sarcasm:

“These gentlemen are against all political-revolutionary action. Russia
is to leap into the anarchist-communist-atheist millennium in one breakneck
jump! In the meantime, they are preparing for this leap by a tiresome
doctrinairism, whose so-called principles have been commonplaces e\er
since the late Bakunin.” *

We can gather from this how Marx would have appraised the importance
of the “political-revolutionary action” of Social-Democracy for Russia of
1905 and the following years.*

Here is a letter by Engels dated April 6, 1887:

“On the other hand, the crisis in Russia seems to be impending. 1 he
recent assassinations have fairly capped the climax. . . .

A letter of April 9, 1887, says the same thing.

“The army is full of discontented, conspiring officers. [Engels at that
time was influenced by the revolutionary struggle of the People’s Will
party, setting his hopes on the officers and not yet seeing the revolutionary
elan of the Russian soldier and sailor disclosed so magnificently eighteen
years later (Note by Lenin)]. ... I do not believe it will bit out this
year. . . . And if it but starts ( losgeht ) in Russia, then hurrah!

A letter of April 23, 1887: ...

"In Germany one persecution (of the Socialists) after another. It s

» Following the Revolution of 1905, a Duma (parliament) bases! on limned
suffrage and exercising limited powers was established. The First Duma wa
elected in 1906 and its second in 1907. Both Dumas were prorogue! ))
Tsarist governments —Ed.

‘ By the way, if my memory docs not deceive me, Plckhanov or V. J-
told me in 1900-03 about the existence of a letter of Engels ‘‘ e ^ a R ia
Our Differences and on the character of the impending revolution 1
It would be interesting to know precisely— is there such a letter, does 11 ’

and is it not time to publish it 1 -Note by Lenin. See letter m Marx-Engels, Sr
lected Correspondence, International Publishers, 1935, pp- 13 6 *3 H 1 '

• See p. 182.

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

285

that Bismarck wants to have everything ready, so that when the revolution
breaks out in Russia, which is probably only a question of months, it can
immediately be started ( losgeschlagen werden) in Germany too." 1
The months proved to be very long ones. Doubtless, philistines will be
found who, knitting their brows and wrinkling their foreheads, will
sternly condemn Engels' "revolutionism" or indulgently laugh at the old
utopias of the old revolutionary exile.

Yes, Marx and Engels erred much and erred often in determining the
closeness of the revolution, in their hopes in the victory of the revolution
{e.g., in 1848 in Germany), in their faith in the imminence of a German
"republic" ("to die for the republic," wrote Engels of that period, recalling
his sentiments as a participant in the military campaign for an imperial
constitution in 1848-49). They erred in 1871 when they were engaged in
"raising revolt in Southern France, for which" they (Becker writes "we,"
referring to himself and his closest friends: Letter No. 14 [from Johann
Philipp Becker to Sorge] of July 21 , 1871 ) "worked, sacrificed, and risked
all that was humanly possible. ..." The same letter says: If we had had

more funds in March and April, we would have roused the whole of
Southern France to revolt and would have saved the Commune in Paris.

But such errors of titans of revolutionary thought, who tried to raise
and did raise the proletariat of the whole world above the level of petty,
commonplace, and trifling tasks, are a thousand times nobler, more
sublime, and historically truer and more valuable than the trivial wisdom
of official liberalism, which sings, shouts, appeals, and jabbers about the
vanity of revolutionary vanities, the futility of revolutionary struggle, an
the charms of counter-revolutionary "constitutional rot. . . .

The Russian working class will win its freedom and give a fillip to
Europe by its revolutionary action, full though it may be of mistakes anc
let the vulgarians pride themselves on the infallibility of their revolution-
ary inaction.

April 6, 1907

THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES

Ten months have elapsed since, at the translator’s wish, I wrote the
Appendix to this book; * and during these ten months, a rewtatron has
been accomplished in American society such as, in am ot er

* The* American edition of The Conditions of the U’o r *iMg eia« in £ngW in
Ifttl. Published in New York in 1887- this was the first edm^i o gn v

English language, the original German edition having >ien is> 1 •

in 18.15. The b£>k did not appear in England until .892- The «nJ«.o. forffie
American edition was done by Florence Kelley Wischncwe Z JJ* oduced

and revised by Engels. His special preface for the American edition is reproduced

here. (Sec pp. 145-200 passim.)

286

MARX AND ENGELS

would have taken at least ten years. In February 1885, American public
opinion was almost unanimous on this one point; that there was no work-
ing class, in the European sense of the word, in America; that consequently
no class struggle between workmen and capitalists, such as tore European
society to pieces, was possible in the American Republic; and that, there-
fore, socialism was a thing of foreign importation which could never take
root on American soil. And yet, at that moment, the coming class struggle
was casting its gigantic shadow before it in the strikes of the Pennsylvania
coal miners, and of many other trades, and especially in the preparations,
all over the country, for the great eight hours' movement which was to
come off and did come off in the May following. That I then duly appre-
ciated these symptoms, that I anticipated a working class movement on a
national scale, my “Appendix” shows; but no one could then foresee that
in such a short time the movement would burst out with such irresistible
force, would spread with the rapidity of a prairie fire, would shake Ameri-
can society to its very foundations.

The fact is there, stubborn and indisputable. To what an extent it had
struck with terror the American ruling classes, was revealed to me, in an
amusing way, by American journalists who did me the honor of calling on
me last summer; the “new departure” had put them into a state of helpless
fright and perplexity. But at that time the movement was only just on the
start; there was but a series of confused and apparently disconnected up-
heavals of that class which, by the suppression of Negro slavery and the
rapid development of manufactures, had become the lowest stratum of
American society. Before the year closed, these bewildering social convul-
sions began to take a definite direction. The spontaneous, instinctive move-
ments of these vast masses of working people, over a vast extent of coun-
try, the simultaneous outburst of their common discontent with a miserable
social condition, the same everywhere and due to the same causes, made
them conscious of the fact, that they formed a new and distinct class of
American society: a class of— practically speaking— more or less hereditary
wage-workers, proletarians. And with true American instinct this conscious-
ness led them at once to take the next step towards their deliverance: the
formation of a political workingmen's party, with a platform of its own,
and with the conquest of the Capitol and the White House for its goal.
In May the struggle for the eight hours' working-day, the troubles in Chi-
cago, Milwaukee, etc., the attempts of the ruling class to crush the nascent
uprising of labor by brute force and brutal class justice; in November the
new Labor Party organized in all great centers, and the New York, Chicago
and Milwaukee elections. May and November have hitherto reminded the
American bourgeoisie only of the payment of coupons of U. S. bonds;
henceforth May and November will remind them too, of the dates on
which the American working class presented their coupons for payment.

In European countries, it took the working class years and years before
they fully realized the fact that they formed a distinct and, under the
existing social conditions, a permanent class of modern society; and it
took years again until this class-consciousness led them to form themselves
into a distinct political party, independent of, and opposed to, all the old

LETTERS TO AMERICANS 287

political parties, formed by the various sections of the ruling classes. On
the more favored soil of America, where no medieval ruins bar the way,
where history begins with the elements of the modern bourgeois society as
evolved in the seventeenth century, the working class passed through these
two stages of its development within ten months.

Still, all this is but a beginning. That the laboring masses should feel
their community of grievances and of interests, their solidarity as a class in
opposition to all other classes; that in order to give expression and effect
to this feeling, they should set in motion the political machinery provided
for that purpose in every free country— that is the first step only. The next
step is to find the common remedy for these common grievances, and to
embody it in the platform of the new Labor Party. And this-the most
important and the most difficult step in the movement-has yet to be taken
in America.

A new party must have a distinct positive platform, a platform whicn
may vary in details as circumstances vary and as the party itself develops,
but still one upon which the party, for the time being, is agreed. So long
as such a platform has not been worked out, or exists but in a rudimentary
form, so long the new party, too, will have but a rudimentary existence;
it may exist locally but not yet nationally; it will be a party potentially

but not actually. . . , , ,

That platform, whatever may be its first initial shape, must develop in a
direction which may be determined beforehand. The causes that brought
into existence the abyss between the working class and the capitalist class
are the same in America as in Europe; the means of filling up that abyss
are equally the same everywhere. Consequently, the platform of the Ameri-
can proletariat will in the long run coincide as to the ultimate end to be
attained, with the one which, after sixty years of dissensions and discus-
sions, has become the adopted platform of the great mass o t e uropea
militant proletariat. It will proclaim, as the ultimate end, «mqucst ^
political supremacy by the working class, in order to effect the direc p-
propriation of all means of production-land, railways,
etc.-by society at large, to be worked in common by all for the accoun

and benefit of all. .. . , • A

But if the new American party, like all political parties everyw ,

the very fact of its formation aspires to the conquest of P° luica ^F^“; *
is as yet far from agreed upon what to do with that P°'' e ^ .

attained. In New York and the other great cities of the East, the rg*
tion of the working class has proceeded upon the lines o ’

forming in each city a powerful Central Labor Union. In New York the
Central Labor Union, Last November, chose for .ts standard beare Hen^
George, and consequently its temporary electoral platform has bee g y
imbued with his principles. In the great cities of the Northwest. Uieel«
toral battle was fought upon a rather indefinite a or p * .And

influence of Henry George’s theories was scarce y, i a • ’ cla$s

while in these great centers of population and o two

movement came to a political head, we find all over s v-ialist Labor

spread labor organizations: die Knights of Labor and the Socialist Labor

288

MARX AND ENGELS

Party, of which only the latter has a platform in harmony with the modern
European standpoint as summarized above.

Of the three more or less definite forms under which the American labor
movement thus presents itself, the first, the Henry George movement in
New York, is for the moment of a chiefly local significance. No doubt New
York is by far the most important city of the States; but New York is not
Paris and die United States are not France. And it seems to me that the
Henry George platform, in its present shape, is too narrow to form the
basis for anything but a local movement, or at least for a short-lived phase
of the general movement. To Henry George, the expropriation of the mass
of the people from the land is the great and universal cause of the split-
ting up of the people into rich and poor. Now this is not quite correct
historically. In Asiatic and classical antiquity, the predominant form of
class oppression was slavery, that is to say, not so much the expropriation
of the masses from the land as the appropriation of their persons. When,
in the decline of the Roman Republic, the free Italian peasants were ex-
propriated from their farms, they formed a class of poor whites similar
to that of the Southern slave states before 1861; and between slaves and
poor whites, two classes equally unfit for self-emancipation, the old world
went to pieces.

In the Middle Ages, it was not the expropriation of the people from , but
on the contrary, their appropriation to the land which became the source
of feudal oppression. The peasant retained his land, but was attached to
it as a serf or villein, and made liable to tribute to the lord in labor and in
produce. It was only at the dawn of modern times, towards the end of the
fifteenth century, that the expropriation of the peasantry on a large scale
laid the foundation for the modern class of wage-workers who possess
nothing but their labor power and can live only by the selling of that labor
power to others. But if the expropriation from the land brought this class
into existence, it was the development of capitalist production, of modern
industry and agriculture on a large scale which perpetuated it, increased
it, and shaped it into a distinct class with distinct interests and a distinct
historical mission. All this has been fully expounded by Marx (Capital,
Part VIII: “The So-called Primitive Accumulation”). According to Marx,
the cause of the present antagonism of the classes and of the social degrada-
tion of the working class is their expropriation from all means of produc-
tion, in which the land is of course included.

If Henry George declares land monopolization to be the sole cause ol
poverty and misery, he naturally finds the remedy in the resumption ol the
land by society at large. Now, the Socialists of the school of Marx, too,
demand the resumption, by society, of the land, and not only of the lane
but of all other means of production likewise. But even if we leave these
out of the question, there is another difference. What is to be done wit 1
the land? Modern Socialists, as represented by Marx, demand that it sliou c
be held and worked in common and for common account, and the same
with all other means of social production, mines, railways, factories, etc.;
Henry George would confine himself to letting it out to individuals as at
present, merely regulating its distribution and applying the rents tor

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

289

public, instead of, as at present, for private purposes. What the Socialists
demand, implies a total revolution of the whole system of social produc-
tion; what Henry George demands, leaves the present mode of social pro-
duction untouched, and has, in fact, been anticipated by the extreme
section of Ricardian bourgeois economists who, too, demanded the con-
fiscation of the rent of land by the state.

It would of course be unfair to suppose that Henry George has said his
last word once for all. But I am bound to take his theory as I find it.

The second great section of the American movement is formed by the
Knights of Labor. And that seems to be the section most typical of the
present state of the movement, as it is undoubtedly by far the strongest.
An immense association spread over an immense extent of country in in-
numerable “assemblies,” representing all shades of individual and local
opinion within the working class; the whole of them sheltered under a
platform of corresponding indistinctness and held together much less by
their impracticable constitution than by the instinctive feeling that the
very fact of their clubbing together for their common aspiration makes
them a great power in the country; a truly American paradox clothing the
most modern tendencies in the most medieval mummeries, and hiding the
most democratic and even rebellious spirit behind an apparent, but really
powerless despotism-such is the picture the Knights of Labor offer to a
European observer. But if we are not arrested by mere outside whimsicali-
ties, we cannot help seeing in this vast agglomeration an immense amount
of potential energy evolving slowly but surely into actual force^ The
Knights of Labor are the first national organization created by the Ameri-
can working class as a whole; whatever be their origin and history, what-
ever their shortcomings and little absurdities, whatever their platform and
their constitution, here they are, the work of practically the whole class of
American wage workers, the only national bond that holds them together,
that makes their strength felt to themselves not less than to their enemies,
and that fills them with the proud hope of future victones. For 1
not be exact to say that the Knights of labor are liable to rtevdopmem.
They are constantly in full process of development and revrfution^ a hew-
ing, fermenting mass of plastic material seeking t e s ape an •

priate to its inherent nature. That form will be attained as surely as h«
torical evolution has, like natural evolution, its own 1 4

Whether the Knights of Labor will then retain their present name or ,
makes no difference, but to an outsider it appears evident that tee -the
raw material out of which the future of the American wo g
ment, and along with it, the future of American society at large, has to b

The third section consists of the Socialist Labor Party. Thisstmon js^a
party but in name, for nowhere in America has it, up > a - n

actually to take its stand as a political party. It is, nlom •
extent foreign to America, having until ately been "tadeup almost ex
clusively by German immigrants, using their own 'anguag ’ ury
most part, little conversant with the common languag d ith

But if it came from a foreign stock, it came, at the same time, armed

ago

MARX AND ENGELS

the experience earned during long years of class struggle in Europe, and
with an insight into the general conditions of working-class emancipation,
far superior to that hitherto gained by American workingmen. This is a
fortunate circumstance for the American proletarians who thus are enabled
to appropriate, and to take advantage of the intellectual and moral fruits
of the forty years’ struggle of their European classmates, and thus to hasten
on the time of their own victory. For, as I said before, there cannot be any
doubt that the ultimate platform of the American working class must and
will be essentially the same as that now adopted by the whole militant
working class of Europe, the same as that of the German-American Socialist
Labor Party. In so far as this party is called upon to play a very important
part in the movement. But in order to do so they will have to doff every
remnant of their foreign garb. They will have to become out and out
American. They cannot expect the Americans to come to them; they, the
minority and the immigrants, must go to the Americans, who are the vast
majority and the natives. And to do that, they must above all things learn
English.

The process of fusing together these various elements of the vast moving
mass— elements not really discordant, but indeed mutually isolated by their
various starting-points-will take some time and will not come off without
a deal of friction, such as is visible at different points even now. The
Knights of Labor, for instance, are here and there, in the Eastern cities,
locally at war with the organized trades unions. But then this same friction
exists within the Knights of Labor themselves, where there is anything but
peace and harmony. These are not symptoms of decay, for capitalists to
crow over. They are merely signs that the innumerable hosts of workers,
for the first time set in motion in a common direction, have as yet foun
out neither the adequate expression for their common interests, nor t e
form of organization best adapted to the struggle, nor the disc.pl me
required to insure victory. They are as yet the first levees en masse of ^the
jJat revolutionary war, raised and equipped locally and independently.
Si converging to form one common army, but as yet without regular
organization Ld common plan of campain. The converging column
cross each other here and there; confusion, angry disputes, even threats of
conflict arise. But the community of ultimate purpose in the end over
comes all minor troubles; ere long the struggling and s q ua bbhng bat-
talions will be formed in a long line of battle array, presenting to the en
emv a well-ordered front, ominously silent under their glittering arms, sup-
ported by bold skirmishers in front and by unshakable reserves in the rear
P To bring about this result, the unification of the various independe
bJL fZ one national lab,, araty, with no manor *

provisional platform, provided i, a nnly wmt.ng^ “

Ih* npvt oreat step to be accomplished m America. To effect tn ,
make thaf platform worthy of the cause, the Socialist Labo ^ 1; ‘“ y ""
contribute a great deal, if they will only act in the same way as the Euro
_„ n Socialists have acted at the time when they were but a small minor y
of the working class. That line of action was first laid down in the
munist Manifesto of 1848 in the following words:

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

29I

“The Communists [that was the name we took at the time and which
even now we are far from repudiating] do not form a separate party
opposed to other working-class parties.

“They have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat

as a whole.

“They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which to
shape and mould the proletarian movement.

“The Communists are distinguished from the other working-class parties
by this only: 1 . In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different
countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of
the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality; 2 . In the various
stages of development which the struggle of the working class against the
bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the
interests of the movement as a whole.

“The Communists, therefore, are on the one hand, practically, the most
advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country,
that section which pushes forward all others; on the other hand, theoreti-
cally, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of
clearly understanding the line of march, the conditions, and the ultimate
general results of the proletarian movement. ...

“The Communists fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, for
the enforcement of the momentary interests of the working class; but m
the movement of the present, they also represent and take care of the

future of that movement” 1 ...

That is the line of action which the great founder of modern socialism,
Karl Marx, and with him, I and the Socialists of all nations who worked
along with us, have followed for more than forty years, with the result that
it has led to victory everywhere, and that at this moment the mass of
European Socialists, in Germany and in France, in Belgium, Hol > an ^ ^^
Switzerland, in Denmark and Sweden, as well as in Spam and Portugal,
are fighting as one common army under one and the same a 0 .

Frederick Engels

London, January 26, 1887

III

AMERICAN TRAVEL NOTES*

September 1888

We usually think of America as a New World, new not ^eiy ^me
of when it was discovered, but new in all its *nstiut.ons_a vorldhi
ahead of us old-fashioned, sleepy Europeans with ts
thing traditional, handed down from the past, a world bu.lt entirely anew

1 The Communist Manifesto, New York.1948. PP- steamship

•This fragment was written by jj* * £
company while aboard the City o/ New k was never written,

to use it later for an article for Die Neue zeit.

2Q2

MARX AND ENGELS

on virgin soil by modern people and founded on modern, practical,
rational principles. For their part, the Americans strive to confirm us in
this opinion. They look down upon us with scorn, considering us to be
sluggish, impractical people, with hidebound, antiquated prejudices,
dreading everything new, while they, the most progressive nation, bois-
terously developing, instantly try out any plan for improvement simply
from the standpoint of its practical advantages and, if the plan is found
to be good, put it into effect immediately, almost the very next day.
Everything in America has to be new, everything has to be rational,
everything has to be practical, consequently, everything is different from
what it is with us.

On the steamship City of Berlin I encountered a fairly large group of
Americans for the first time. Most of them were very nice people, both
men and women, more social than the English, occasionally too outspoken
but otherwise pretty much like more or less well-dressed people everywhere.
What set them apart, in any case, was their singular petty-bourgeois
bearing: not the bearing that is characteristic of the timid, diffident
German philistine or the English bourgeois, but a bearing that seems to
be the inherent trait of its possessor, as the result of the unconstrained,
most matter-of-course, fullest self-confidence. The young ladies, in par-
ticular, gave the impression of a certain nai’vet£, such as could be
encountered in Europe only in the smaller towns. When they walk along
the deck energetically and almost impetuously, arm in arm or on the arm
of a man, they have such a light, dancing stride, and— like our simple
village belles— they hold their skirts demurely if a gust of wind threatens.
In their health and stature they reminded me most of all of the Swedes,
and it seemed to me that they were just about to make curtsies, as Swedish
women do. My American fellow-travelers have inherited a bit of the
physical and mental awkwardness that is the universal congenital trait of
the Germanic race, nor have they overcome it at all. In short, my first
impressions of Americans by no means indicated their national superiority
to Europeans or that I had met with a new, young, national type. On the
contrary, I came to the conclusion that these were a people stubbornly
holding on to inherited petty-bourgeois customs that were considered
old-fashioned in Europe, and that in this respect Europeans are, compared
to Americans, what Parisians are compared to people from the provinces.

In New York, when I first entered my bedroom, I found furniture of
the most antediluvian style one could imagine: chests of drawers with
brass rings or bows as drawer handles, the kind that were in fashion at
the beginning of this century and are still found in villages; nearby there
shone objects in a later style, English or French, but they, too, were old-
fashioned enough and, moreover, not in their right place. The latest
thing is a tremendous rocking-chair, describing an arc of 240° and likewise
out of fashion. And the picture is the same everywhere. Tables, chairs,
and wardrobes look for the most part as if they had been inherited from
bygone generations. The vehicles in the streets of New York look so
old-fashioned that at first glance it seems that carts of this make can’t be
found in a single farmyard in Europe. When one looks at them more

LETTERS TO AMERICANS

*93

closely, to be sure, one notices that these vehicles are considerably
improved, very comfortable, fitted with excellent springs, extremely light,

a u ex j reme, y stron g wood - but with all these improvements

the old-fashioned model has remained inviolate. London still had cabs
at the beginning of the forties, which the passengers entered from the
rear, sitting opposite one another at the right and left, as in an omnibus;
these cabs disappeared after 1850. These boxes on wheels still flourish
today in Boston— the only American city, so far as I know, where they
actually use droshkies. [Russian horse-drawn cab.]

Modern American hotels, with their luxurious equipment and hundreds
of rooms, owe their purely American type of arrangement to the circum-
stance that they grew out of farmhouses located far from the colonies in
sparsely settled areas, where even today board and lodgings for the night
are offered the casual wayfarer (I shall return to this topic later) in return
for payment. Hence their characteristic features, which to us seem to be
not only peculiar, but also downright old-fashioned. And there is much
along the same lines everywhere.

Anyone desiring to enjoy a trip that could have been made in Europe
at the time of the Thirty Years' War should set out for any American
mountain district, travel to the end of the railroad line, and then-by
stagecoach— into the forests. The four of us made an excursion of this
sort to the Adirondacks, and never did we laugh as uproariously as on the
top of that stagecoach. An old wreck defying description, compared to
which the celebrated Prussian carts of the days of yore would have been
de luxe carriages, with seats in the same style for six or nine persons on
the roof and on the coachboxes— that was what the structure was like.
And then the road. I beg your pardon, that wasn’t a road; one could
hardly have called it a path: two deep ruts cut into the sandy clay soil,
uphill and down. . . .

[The manuscript breaks off here]

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES AND INDEX

adler, viktor (1852-1918), founder and
outstanding leader of Austrian So-
cial-Democracy; a leader of reformist
wing in Second International. 222
annexe, friedrich (1817-1866), former
Prussian officer; participant in Baden
uprising; fought in Union Army in
U.S. Civil War. 64

AUER, IGNAZ (1846-1907), German right-
wing Social-Democrat, secretary of
party (1890); Reichstag deputy, ex-
cept for brief intervals, 1877-1907.
155, 212, 214, 237, 279

AVELINC, EDWARD ["BIBBINS”] (1851-1898),
English physiologist and socialist;
married Marx’s daughter, Eleanor;
active in Social Democratic Federa-
tion; co- translator, with Samuel
Moore, of Capital, Vol. I. 143-44,
148, 151, 156, 159, 162 n., 167, 169-75,
178-83, 185, 187-90, 201, 203-04, 210,
218, 221, 235, 249

aveling, eleanor. See Marx-Aveling.
bakunin, michael a. (1814-1876), Rus-
sian ideologist of anarchism; factional
conspirator in First International;
expelled at Hague Congress (1872).
3, 54, 86 n., 90-92, 96 n., 97-100, 102,
109-11, 126, 138, 215, 284

BAUER, HEINRICH, German shoemaker,
a leader of League of the Just; mem-
ber of Central Committee of Com-
munist League; emigrated to Aus-
tralia (1851). 15, 19
bax, ernest belfort (1854-1926), British
socialist and idealist philosopher; a
founder of Social Democratic Federa-
tion; an editor of Justice and To-
day; chauvinist during World War I.
131, 144, 156, 162 n., 220-21, 226
BEBEL, FERDINAND AUGUST (1840-1915), a
wood turner, founder and leader of
German Social-Democratic Party and
Second International; deviated toward
the Right after Engels' death. 101,
103, 105, 119-20, 132, 134, 139, 142,
144, 148, 155, 211. 216, 219 n., 221,

229, 237, 254, 267, 277-78, 282

BECKER, HERMANN ["RED BECKER*’] (1820-
1885), German publicist, member of
Communist League and a defendant
in Cologne Communist trial; later a
National Liberal. 26, 29, 31, 33, 37, 52
BECKER, JOHANN PHILIPP (1809-1886),
German Communist, brushmaker by
trade; participated in 1848 Revolu-
tion in Germany; leader of First
International in Switzerland; edited
Vorbote and Pricurseur in Geneva;
friend of Marx and Engels. 102, 105-
06, 160, 252, 273

Bellamy, edward (1850-1898), Ameri-
can social reformer; author of Uto-
pian novel, Looking Backward 2000-
1887 (Boston, 1888). 219 n.
bem, josef (1795-1850), Polish revolu-
tionary general; fought in Polish
Revolution of 1830 and 1848 Hun-
garian Revolution. 21, 59
BERNSTEIN, EDUARD [“EDE”] (1850-1952),
a leader of German Social-Democ-
racy and Second International; chief
exponent of German revisionism. 118,
198, 200, 206, 211-14, 216, 277, 279

BISMARCK, OTTO EDUARD VON, PRINCE

(1815-1898), first Chancellor of Ger-
man Empire (1871-90), representative
of Prussian Junkerdom. 63, 70, 98,
100-03, 113, 116, 119 n., 121-22, 124,
162-63, 173, 176, 193-96, 206, 210-12.
221, 276 n.

BLANC, JEAN JOSEPH LOUIS (1811-1882),
French petty-bourgeois socialist, pub-
licist, and historian; member of
French Provisional Government in
1848. 44, 46, 56

blatchford, Robert (1851-1945), Eng-
lish socialist and journalist; a founder
of Independent Labor Party; sup-
ported Boer War, World War I. 240
blos, wilhelm (1849-1927), German
journalist and a right-wing leader
in Social -Democratic Party; chauvin-
ist during World War I. 132, 147, 227

«94

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX

295

blum, Robert (1807-1848), Leipzig dem-
ocrat; courtmartialed and executed
for participation in Vienna uprising
of 1848. 208

BOISGUILLEBERT, PIERRE LE PESANT, SIEUR

de (1646-1714), French economist,
precursor of physiocrats and of
classical bourgeois political economy
in France. 61

bolte, friedrich, German- American so-
cialist; member of German Section
(No. 1) of First International in
New York; secretary of American
Federal Council. 82, 88
born, stephan (1824-1898), German
typesetter, member of Communist
League; a leader of Dresden upris-
ing in 1849. 15

BOULANGER, GEORGES ERNEST (1857-1891),
French general and Germanophobe;
helped suppress Paris Commune in
1871; initiator of reactionary chau-
vinist movement, "Boulangism.” 206,
210, 212, 231

bracke, wilhelm (1842-1880), German
Social-Democrat, publisher and book-
seller. 87, 134, 277

broadhurst, henry (1840-1911), British
trade union leader and Liberal-
Labor politician. 214-15
brousse, paul, dr. (1854-1912), French
petty-bourgeois socialist and physi-
cian; an organizer of French Workers’
Party (1880); head of possibilists. 214,
216, 218, 279

bOrgers, heinrich (1820-1878), member
of Communist League, associate edi-
tor of Neue Rheinische Zeitung, and
a defendant in Cologne Communist
trial. 31, 37

burns, John (1858-1945), British labor
leader; a founder of Social Demo-
cratic Federation; joined Independent
Labor Party (1893), later a Liberal;
Cabinet Minister (1905, 1914). 215,
221-22, 225, 229, 235, 247, 264, 283
burns, mary ellen. See Mary Ellen
Rosher.

cabet, Etienne (1788-1856), French
Utopian communist; author of Voy-
age to Icaria (1840); organized an
agricultural community in Nauvoo,

111. (1849-55). 2, 46

CAMfeLINAT, LOUIS ZfepHYRIN (1840-1952),
French engraver, active in Paris
Commune; lifelong member of French
Communist Party. 154
carey, henry charles (1795-1879), early
American economist; propounded
theory of harmony of class interests.
44, 74-75

chalain, louis denis (b. 1854), French
lathe-hand, member of First Inter-
national and Paris Commune. 83
champion, henry hYde (1857-1928),
British socialist, publisher of labour
Elector ; emigrated to Australia where
he helped form Socialist Party to-
gether with Tom Mann. 144, 221,
225-26, 230, 247, 261, 283

CHERNYSHEVSKY, NIKOLAI CAVRILOVICH

(1829-1889), outstanding Russian rev-
olutionary* democrat, economist, ma-
terialist philosopher, and literary
critic; spent much of his life in
prison and exile. 82
clausewitz, karl von (1780-1851), Prus-
sian general and outstanding military
theorist. 21, 54

clemenceau, ceorges (1841-1929), prom-
inent leader of French bourgeoisie
under Third Republic; took part in
defense of Dreyfus; imperialist leader
during World War I. 125-26, 155, 164
CLUSERET, GUSTAVE PAUL (1825-1900),
French army officer, fought on Union
side in American Civil War; defense
chief of staff of Paris Commune. 80
CLUSS, ADOLPH, engineer, member of
Communist League in Mainz; emi-
grated to U.S., became a journalist
and later an engineer in Washington,
D. C., Navy Yard. 9, 38-39, 43, 47-49,
53, 59-60

CONWAY, MONCURE DANIEL, REV. (1852-
1907), American Methodist minister.
Abolitionist, and radical writer; lived
in England (1863-84). 9, 11, 83
CUNO, THEODORE FRIEDRICH (ca. 1847-
1956), German socialist, engineer;
deported from Germany, helped or-
ganize Milan Section of First Inter-
national; emigrated to U.S. in 1872;
leader of Knights of Labor, contribu-

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX

296

tor to New-Yorker Volkszeitung. 9,
87, 96, 101, 103, 107, 109, 136, 139, 201

DANA, CHARLES ANDERSON ( 1819-1897 ),
follower of Fourier, an Abolitionist
and Republican; managing editor of
New York Tribune (1847-62); in
1857-63, editor of New American En-
cyclopedia (with George Ripley);
editor-in-chief of New York Sun
(1868-97). 9, 10, 25, 27, 31, 38, 39, 48
Daniels, roland, dr. (1819-1855), Co-
logne physician, friend of Marx; a
defendant in Cologne Communist
trial; died of tuberculosis contracted
in prison. 33

de leon, daniel (1852-1914), leader of
Socialist Labor Party and editor of
The People. 219, 256
DEMBINSKI, HENRYK, COUNT (179T1864),
Polish general, army commander in
Polish Revolution of 1830-31 and
Hungarian Revolution of 1848-49. 59

DEMUTH, HELENE [“LENCHEN,” “MM”]

(1823-1890), housekeeper for Marx
family from her early youth, close
family friend; after Marx’s death,
kept house for Engels. 135, 201, 232
deville, cabriel (b. 1854), French so-
cialist, edited L’Egalitd together with
Jules Guesde; left the party to enter
French Cabinet. 155, 159, 211
devoy, John (1842-1928), Irish-Ameri-
can socialist and Fenian; member of
Irish Section (No. 7) of First Inter-
national in New York; edited Gaelic
American (1903-28); author, Recol-
lections of an Irish Rebel (1929). 84
dietzgen, Joseph (1828-1888), self-taught
German-American philosopher and
communist, tanner by trade; author,
Positive Outcome of Philosophy, and
other works, some of which are col-
lected in his Philosophical Essays
(Chicago, 1906). 161, 180, 273
douai, adolph, dr. (1819-1888), German-
American socialist editor; active in
Revolution of 1848; in 1852 emi-
grated to Texas and established an
Abolitionist newspaper, San Antonio
Zeitung; editor of Die Arbeiter -Union
until 1870; editor of the three organs
of Working Men’s Party —Labor

Standard, Arbeiterstimme, Vorbote
(1876); co-editor of New-Yorker Volks-
zeitung (1878-88). 139, 147, 153, 175
DRONKE, ERNST [“SONNY”] (1822-1891),
German radical publicist; active
member of Communist League and
associate editor of Neue Rheinische
Zeitung (1848-49); later withdrew
from politics. 18-19, 34, 47, 60
duc-quercy (b. 1856) French socialist;
helped Guesde and Lafargue found
Workers’ Party; for many years sec-
retary of L'HumaniM. 155
dOhring, eugen karl (1833-1921), Ger-
man university professor; author of a
universal “system of all the sciences,”
which Engels demolished in Anti-
Diihring. 74, 116, 276
duncker, FRANZ GUSTAV (1822-1888),
German democratic publicist and
publisher; in 1860’s a founder of the
Hirsch -Duncker trade unions; pub-
lisher of Berliner Volkszeitung. 61
DUPONT, EUGENE CLOVIS (1830-1902),
French musical -instrument maker,
lived in London; member of General
Council of First International (1865-
71) and corresponding secretary for
France. 80, 89

ECCARIUS, JOHANN GEORGE (1818-1889),
German tailor, emigrated to London;
member of Communist League, sec-
retary of General Council of First
International (1867-72); later became
a leader of British trade unions. 30,
38, 42, 80, 89, 93, 215
"ede.” See Eduard Bernstein.
foster-avery, rachel, secretary of Na-
tional Women’s Suffrage Association;
helped in American publication of
Engels’ The Condition of the Work-
ing Class in England in 1844. 151,
154, 159, 185

frAnkel, LEO (1844-1896), Hungarian
socialist, jewelry worker; a leader of
Paris Commune and member of
General Council of First Interna-
tional; a founder of Hungarian
Social-Democratic Party. 83
franklin, benjamin (1706-1790), Amer-
ican statesman, scientist, and diplo-
mat, outstanding leader in fight for

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX

American independence; one of the
first to propound the labor theory
of value. 62

FREILIGRATH, FERDINAND (1810-1876),
German revolutionary poet; an edi-
tor of Neue Rheinische Zeitung and
member of the Communist League;
joined bourgeois democrats. 25, 27,
29-32, 38-39, 47, 50-52, 60
garibaldi, giuseppe (1807-1882), Italian
revolutionary democrat, leader of
movement for Italian independence.
65, 88

geiser, bruno (1846-1898), German
journalist and leader of right wing
in Social -Democratic Party during
1 880’s. 132, 147, 155, 176
george, henry (1839-1897), American
economist; author, Progress and Pov-
erty; advocated “single tax” as solu-
tion for all social ills. 127-130, 139-40,
162-63, 166-67, 184, 189-92, 230, 274-
75, 287-89

GLADSTONE, WILLIAM EWART (1809-1898),
British statesman, leader of Liberal
Party; Prime Minister (1868-74, 1880-
85, 1886, 1892-94). 79, 81, 94, 121,
210, 220, 235, 260, 264
gompers, SAMUEL (1850-1924), cigar
maker, emigrated to U.S. in 1863;
reactionary labor leader; president
of A.F. of L. (except in 1894) from
its founding in 1886 until his death.
233-34, 240

GRANT, ULYSSES SIMPSON (1822-1885),
American Civil War general, cora-
mander-in-chief of Union armies
(1864-65); President of the U.S.
(1869-77). 64, 67-69
gray, John (1799-1850), British econo-
mist and Utopian socialist. 62, 81
grOnlund, Laurence (1846-1901), Dan-
ish-American Social-Democrat; mem-
ber of Executive Committee of
Socialist Labor Party. 146, 196
guesde, jules (1845-1922), French so-
cialist, a founder of Workers' Party;
drifted into reformism in late 1890 ’s;
supported World War I. 124, 126,
134, 142, 155, 211, 222, 256, 259

GUIZOT, FRANCOIS PIERRE GUILLAUME

(1787-1874), French historian, ideolo-

297

gist of French big business; Minister
of Foreign Affairs and Premier (1840-
48). 44, 128

hardie, james keir (1856-1915), British
socialist leader and leader of Ayr-
shire miners; founder of Independent
Labor Party. 247, 264

HARNEY, GEORGE JULIAN (1817-1897),
leader of left wing of Chartists and
editor of Northern Star (1843-50);
member of Communist League and
First International; emigrated to U.S.
in 1860; became Assistant Secretary
of Massachusetts; returned to Eng-
land in 1888. 15, 28, 43, 82, 117, 202

hasselmann, wilhelm (b. 1844), Ger-
man Social-Democrat; Reichstag dep-
uty (1874-80); expelled from party
together with Johann Most (1880)
for anarchism; later emigrated to
U.S. 124

heinzen, karl peter (1809-1880), Ger-
man-American democratic publicist;
emigrating to U.S. in 1850, he con-
tinued to attack proletarian move-
ment and Marx in his journal, the
Pionier. 23-24, 26, 29, 43-45, 49, 57,
142, 269

hepner, adolph (1846-1923), German -
American socialist, member of First
International; emigrated to U.S. in
1880’s; contributor to New-Yorker
Volkszeitung; returned to Germany
in 1908. 9, 110-11, 132, 133 n., 139,
141, 180

hochberg, karl [l. richter] (1853-
1885), German insurance official and
philanthropic socialist; financed sev-
eral reformist periodicals in 1870’s
and 1880’s. 116, 118-20, 123, 132,
276-78

hourwich, isaac a. (1860-1924), jour-
nalist and statistician; emigrated
from Russia in 1890’s; active in so-
cialist movement, later became a re-
visionist. 9, 11, 253

hyndman, henry MAYERS (1842-1921),
English lawyer, journalist, and so-
cialist; a founder of Social Demo-
cratic Federation; reformist leader of
Second International; chauvinist dur-
ing World War I. 130, 143-44, 153,

biographical index

298

156, 165, 184, 189, 209, 211, 213-16,
219-20, 226, 234, 249, 263-64, 279
jaures, jean (1859-1914), French re-
formist socialist leader, originally
professor of philosophy in Toulouse;
active in Dreyfus case (1897); found-
ed L'HumaniU (1904), editing it
until his death; opposed to threat
of war in summer of 1914, assassi-
nated by a superpatriot. 259
JESSUP, william j., American ship's
carpenter, active in National Labor
Union; correspondent of General
Council of First International; presi-
dent of New York State Working
Men’s Association (1870). 74, 89
JEVONS, WILLIAM STANLEY (1835-1882),
British philosopher and economist;
advocate of the subjective theory of
value. 226

Johnson, Andrew (1808-1875), seven-
teenth President of the U.S. 71-72
jonas, Alexander (d. 1912), German-
American socialist, editor of weekly
Arbeiterstimme, New York (1877),
and an editor of New-Yorker Volks-
zeitung (1885). 178, 180, 183, 207
jones, ernest charles (1819-1869), Brit-
ish lawyer and left-wing Chartist
leader; published Notes to the People
(1851-52) and People's Paper (1852-
53); active in Reform League in
1860’s. 15, 31, 39, 43, 60
jones, richard (1790-1855), British
economist; supporter of Malthus and
critic of Ricardo. 45
JUNC, HERMANN ( 1830-1901), Swiss
watchmaker living in London, mem-
ber of General Council of First Inter-
national (1864-72); broke with Marx
and joined Liberal trade unionists
(1872). 209, 215, 226
kautsky, karl (1854-1938), German
Social-Democrat, leading theoretician
of Second International, editor of
Die Neue Zeit; in his early writings,
a popularizer of Marxism; pacifist
during World War I; turned into a
renegade and an embittered enemy
of the U.S.S.R. 8, 173, 175, 179-80,
191, 210-11, 237, 240

kautsky, louise (We strasser), Austrian
socialist, midwife by profession, first
wife of Karl Kautsky; Engels’ secre-
tary after 1890. 232, 240, 245, 254,
268-69

kelley, Florence (1859-1932), Ameri-
can socialist and social reformer;
translated Engels’ The Condition of
the Working Class in England in
1844 ; executive secretary of National
Consumers’ League for many years.

3, 7-9, 144, 148-50, 152, 157-58, 165,
167, 169, 174, 177, 182, 185-90, 193,
196, 198-99, 201, 205-07, 209, 274, 285
Kellogg, edward (1790-1858), American
economist, father of Greenbackisra.
81

KINKEL, JOHANN GOTTFRIED (1815-1882),
German poet and democrat; headed
petty-bourgeois German emigres in
London in 1850’s and 1860’s. 31, 37,
46, 49, 57, 61

KOCH, EDUARD ignatz, German- American
democrat, former Catholic priest. 28
kossuth, la jos (1802-1894), Hungarian
independence leader; after defeat of
1848 Revolution, emigrated to Lon-
don; intrigued with Napoleon III to
regain power in Hungary. 58, 69

KRAVCHINSKY, SERGIUS MIKHAILOVICH

[stepniak] ( 1852-1895 ), Russian revo-
lutionary, a Populist; in 1878 assassi-
nated Mezentsev, chief of police, in
St. Petersburg and escaped abroad;
author, Underground Russia . 156
KUGELM ANN, LUDWIG, DR. (1830-1902),
Hanover physician, fought in Revo-
lution of 1848; member of First
International, in constant correspond-
ence with Marx (1862-74). 73, 274

LAFARGUE, LAURA MARX (1846-1911),
Marx’s second daughter; married
Paul Lafargue in 1868; translated
Communist Manifesto into French
(1886); active in French socialist
movement. 240, 248
LAFARGUE, paul (1842-1911), leader of
Marxist wing in French labor move-
ment; active in First International,
helped organize French Workers
Party (1879); author of numerous
Marxist pamphlets. 104, 110, 124, 142,

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX

299

155, 159, 161, 174, 208, 211, 238, 240,
248, 256, 264

LAMENNAIS, HUGUES F£LICIT£ ROBERT DE

( 1782-1854 ), French abbot and social
theorist; excommunicated in 1834;
leading exponent of Christian social-
ism. 46

LANKESTER, EDWIN RAY, SIR (1847-1929),
British naturalist, professor at Uni-
versity of London and later at Ox-
ford; friend of Marx. 135
lassalle, Ferdinand (1825-1864), Ger-
man lawyer and labor leader; founder
of General German Workers Union
(1863); worked secretly with Bis-
marck; a forefather of opportunism
in German Social-Democracy; killed
in a duel. 3, 61, 70, 90 n., 134, 276

LEDRU-ROLLIN, ALEXANDRE AUGUSTE (1807-
1874), French petty-bourgeois demo-
crat; Minister of Interior in Pro-
visional Government of 1848; emi-
grated to London (1850), where he
was a leader of petty-bourgeois
French refugees; returned to France
in 1870. 39, 46

LEE, ROBERT EDWARD (1807-1870), tt>m-
mander-in-chief of Confederate ar-
mies in Civil War. 64, 68-69
le moussu, a., French engraver, Com-
munard, an exile in London; member
of General Council of First Inter-
national (1871-72). 93
“lenchen.” See Helene Demuth.
lessner, Friedrich (1825-1910), German
revolutionary', a tailor by trade; sen-
tenced to three years in prison in
Cologne Communist trial; member
of General Council of First Inter-
national; active in British trade
unions and Second International. 252
liebknecht, WILHELM p. m. (1826-1900),
a founder of German Social-Demo-
cratic Party; active in Revolution of
1848; editor of the party paper. For -
warts. 49, 70, 101, 105-06, 119-20,
122-23, 132, 139, 142, 155, 179-80,
185, 187-88, 198, 211-14, 217, 227,
231, 267, 277-79, 282
Lincoln, abraham (1809-1865), mar-
tyred President of the U.S. during
Civil War (1861-65). 5, 65-66, 68,

71-72, 76, 252

LLOYD, henry demarest (1847-1903),
American publicist and economist;
advocate of co-opeTatives and labor
and progressive causes. 9, 11, 251
longuet, CHARLES ( 1833-1903 ), French
journalist and member of General
Council of First International and of
Paris Commune; married Marx’s
daughter Jenny (1872). 83, 125
longuet, jenny MARX (1844-1883) , Karl
Marx’s eldest daughter; married
Charles Longuet. 131, 133-35
LOUIS PHILIPPE (1773-1850), King of
France (1830-48). 34
lovell, John, New York publisher; in
1887 published Engels’ The Condi-
tion of the Working Class in England
in 1844, translated by Florence Kel-
ley. 191, 196

“lupus.” See Wilhelm Wolff.
lOning, otto, dr. (1818-1868), German
physician and publicist, a “true so-
cialist”; brother-in-law of Joseph
Weydemeyer; later became a Na-
tional Liberal. 15

MALTHUS, THOMAS ROBERT, REV. (1766-
1834), English clergyman and econo-
mist, best known for his “law of
population,” based on notion that
population grows more rapidly than
food supply. 45

MANN, TOM (1856-1941), British labor
leader, machinist by trade; secretary'
of Independent Labor Party (1896-
98); helped to organize labor move-
ment in Australia, New Zealand, and
South Africa; opponent of World
War I; joined British Communist
Party (1920). 221-22, 229, 235, 283

MARX-AVEUNG, ELEANOR [“TUSSY”] (1856-
1898), Marx’s youngest daughter,
married Edward Aveling; organizer
of London Gas Workers Union and
women’s socialist movement; made
standard English translation of sev-
eral Henrik Ibsen plays. 112, 122,
139, 148, 156, 162 n., 167, 169-72,
175, 179-82, 185, 199, 201, 204, 210,
218, 220-21, 225-26, 234-35, 240, 249,
283

MARX, JENNY (nie VON WESTPHALEN)

3 °°

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX

(1814-1881), daughter of Prussian
State Councillor, Ludwig von West*
phalcn; married Karl Marx in 1843.
15, 32, 43, 79, 127

MAZZINI, GIUSEPPE (1805-1872), Italian
bourgeois revolutionary and repub-
lican; fought for national unification
of Italy; an exile in London in 1850’s
and 1 860 ’s. 27, 36, 39, 46, 87, 98

MCCULLOCH, JOHN RAMSAY (1789-1864),
Scottish economist, popularizer of
Ricardo’s theories. 45
mc donnell, j. p. (d. 1906), Irish-Ameri-
can Fenian and labor leader; member
of General Council of First Interna-
tional; editor of New York Labor
Standard ; organized New Jersey State
Federation of Trades and Labor
Unions (1883); author of New Jersey
Labor Day Law (1887). 84, 95-96
MC GLYNN, EDWARD, REV. (1837-1900),
Roman Catholic priest of New York,
active in Henry George mayoralty
campaign (1886); excommunicated by
Pope Leo XIII in 1887 for advocating
single tax. 189-90

mehring, franz (1846-1919), theoreti-
cian and historian of German Social-
Democratic Party, literary critic; an
internationalist during World War I;
a founder of Communist Party of
Germany. 8-9, 273, 276-79
meyer, Siegfried (1840-1872), German-
American mining engineer and so-
cialist; emigrated to U.S. (1867),
where he helped found General
German Working Men’s Union of
New York, a section of First Inter-
national. 9, 73-74, 77, 81, 89
MILL, JAMES (1773-1836), English his-
torian, philosopher, and economist;
follower of Ricardo and father of
John Stuart Mill. 62, 128
mill, john stuart (1806-1873), English
philosopher and classical economist,
whose views were influenced by the
rise of the labor movement and by
socialist criticism. 45
millerand, ALEXANDRE (1859-1943),
French renegade from socialism; the
first socialist to enter a bourgeois
cabinet (1889); after World War I,

President of France. 256

MOLL, JOSEF (1812-1849), Cologne watch-
maker, a leader of League of the
Just; member of Central Committee
of Communist League; killed during
Baden uprising in 1849. 15

MONTESQUIEU, CHARLES LOUIS DE SECON-
DAT, BARON DE LA BRF.DE ET DE (1689-
1755), French historian and political
philosopher, theoretician of constitu-
tional monarchy. 62

moore, samuel (1830-1912), Manchester
judge, close friend of Marx and En-
gels; member of First International;
translated Capital, Vol. I, into Eng-
lish; after 1889 a judge in Asaba on
the Niger in Africa. 177, 216

Morgan, lewis henry (1818-1881), noted
American ethnologist; author, An-
cient Society (1877), which served
Engels as material for The Origin of
the Family, Private Property, and
the State. 143, 208

morris, william (1834-1896), English
poet, artist, typographer, and Uto-
pian socialist; joined Social Demo-
cratic Federation (1883) and subsi-
dized magazine. To-day ; a founder
of Socialist League and editor of its
weekly, Commonweal. 144, 156, 162
n., 184

most, johann Joseph (1846-1906), Ger-
man-American journalist and anar-
chist, a bookbinder by trade; expelled
from German Social-Democratic
Party (1880); emigrated to U.S.
(1883), where he published Die Frei-
heit and became acknowledged leader
of anarchists in U.S. 116-20, 123-24,
133, 137-39, 141-42. 276

NAPOLEON III [LOUIS BONAPARTE] (1808-

1873), Emperor of the French (1852-
70). 41, 53, 56, 63, 69, 80, 100, 128
naut, stefan adolf, member of Cologne
Communist League, managing editor
of Neue Rheinische Zeitung. 19

NECHAYEV, SERGEI GENADIYEVICH (1847
1882), Bakuninist and anarchist; or-
ganized conspiratorial student groups
in Russia; imprisoned in Peter and
Paul fortress. 91, 100
O’BRIEN, JAMES [BRONTERRE] (1805-1864),

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX

British socialist and Chartist leader;
edited The Poor Man's Guardian
(1831-35), Bronterre’s National Re-
former (1837), and The Operative
(1838-39). 81, 89

O’DONNELL, JOHN FRANCIS (1837-1874),
Irish poet and publicist, wrote for
the Irishman. 95

o’donovan rossa, JEREMIAH (1831-1915),
Irish -American Fenian leader; elected
to Parliament for Tipperary (1869),
while serving life term for insurrec-
tion; pardoned and emigrated to U.S.
in 1870; headed Irish-American
Fenians and published The United
Irishman. 79, 96

perczel, moritz (1811-1899), general of
Hungarian revolutionary army (1848-
49); after 1851 an exile in England.
42, 59

petty, william, sir (1623-1687), British
economist and statistician, a founder
of British classical school of political
economy and of labor theory of
value. 61

pieper, WILHELM (1826-ca. 1899), Ger-
man philologist and journalist, mem-
ber of Communist League and emigre
in London; close to Marx in 1850-53.
33, 47

PLEKHANOV, GEORGE V. (1856-1918), a
founder of Russian Marxism; at first
a Populist, but turned to Marxism,
organizing Emancipation of Labor
group (1883); made important theo-
retical contributions to Marxism,
later reformist. 126 n., 274, 285

potter, george (1832-1893), British la-
bor leader, founder (1861) and editor
of weekly Bee Hive ; member of
London Trades Union Council and
founder of London Working Men’s
Association (1866). 221

POWDERLY, TERENCE VINCENT (1S49-1924),
Irish-American machinist, Grand
Master Workman of Knights of La-
bor (1879-93); mayor of Scranton,
Pa. (1878-82); appointed by Pres.
McKinley Commissioner General of
Immigration (1897-1902). 163, 166.
186, 192

PROUDHON, PIERRE JOSEPH (1809-1865),

301

French economist and political the-
orist, father of French “mutualism”
(class reconciliation); advocate of
“free credit’’ schemes. 52, 91, 128,
168, 191

“pumps.” See Mary Ellen Rosher.
pyat, f£lix (1810-1889), French radical
democrat; colonel of Paris National
Guard (1848); member of Paris Com-
mune; as emigre in London opposed
Marx; elected to Chamber of Depu-
ties (1888). 124

RAE, JOHN (1845-1915), British liberal
economist and publicist, author of
studies on contemporary socialism
and on Adam Smith. 130
reeves, william, London publisher of
socialist literature and of the month-
ly, To-day. 205, 208
ricardo, david (1772-1823), English
banker and economist; outstanding
representative of classical political
economy. 44, 62, 128

ROCHEFORT, HENRI, MARQUIS DE ROCHE-

fort-lucay (1830-1913), French pub-
licist and leader of Left Republicans
under Second Empire; joined Bou-
langist conspiracy (1889). 125, 244
ROSENBERG, WILLIAM LUDWIG (b. 1850),
German- American socialist journalist;
secretary of National Executive Com-
mittee of Socialist Labor Party; re-
moved from his post at insistence of
the Marxists. 169, 171-72, 175, 178,
203, 219-20, 223

ROSHER, MARY ELLEN (ndf BURNS)

[“pumps”], Engels’ niece. 132, 201
ruge, Arnold (1802-1880), German radi-
cal publicist. Young Hegelian; pub-
lisher (together with Marx, in 1844)
of Deutsch-Franzdsische Jahrbucher;
after 1866 a supporter of Bismarck.
23-24, 39. 46, 57

5AINT-SIMON, CLAUDE HENRI DF. ROUVROY,

comte de (1760-1825), leading French
Utopian socialist. 91
sani.al, lucien (1836-ca. 1920), French -
American socialist, emigrated to U.S.;
active in Socialist Labor Party and in
Socialist Party. 234, 256
say, je\n-b artiste (1767-1832), French
economist, popularizer of Adam

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX

302

Smith; abandoned classical labor
theory of value for a subjective
utility theory. 45, 62
scHAPrER, KARL (1813-1870), a founder
and leader of League of the Just,
member of Central Committee of
Communist League and of General
Council of First International. 15,
24, 57

scHEwrrscH, sergius e., Russian-Ameri-
can socialist; emigrated to the U.S.,
became a leader of Socialist Labor
Party and an editor of New-Yorker
Volkszeitung. 139, 141, 180
schippel, max ( 1859-1928 ), German So-
cial-Democrat, publicist; Reichstag
deputy and revisionist; chauvinist
during World War I. 212, 214, 279
schlOter, HERMANN (d. 1919), German-
American socialist; member of edi-
torial staff of Sozialdemokrat ; came
to U.S. in 1889 and became editor of
New-Yorker Volkszeitung; author of
books on history of British and
American labor movements. 3, 7, 11,
145, 158, 198, 200, 209, 211, 222, 224,
228, 232, 234 n ., 235, 242, 244, 259,
263, 268

schorlemmer, carl ( 1834-1892 ), noted
German chemist and communist,
friend of Marx and Engels; fought in
Baden uprising of 1849; later pro-
fessor of chemistry in Manchester
and Fellow of the Royal Society. 161,
201-02, 204

schramm, carl august, German jour-
nalist and economist, at first a Lib-
eral, later a Social -Democrat. 19, 24,
118-20, 132, 277-78

SCHURZ, CARL (1829-1906), German-
American soldier, statesman, writer;
took part in 1848 Revolution in Ger-
many; served as brigadier general in
Union army in U.S. Civil War; later
a prominent Republican leader. 64
SCHWEITZER, JOHANN BAPTIST VON (1833-
1875), Frankfurt lawyer and writer;
leader of Lassalleans after Lassalle's
death; founded Sozial-Demokrat
(1864), which was subsidized by Bis-
marck. 70, 90, 99, 109
SEILER, SEBASTIAN (CCL. 1810-Ca. 1890),

Gcrman-American radical journalist,
member of League of the Just and of
Communist League; later active in
socialist movement in U.S. 24
SENIOR, NASSAU WILLIAM (1790-1864),
English economist; reacted to early
socialist criticism of capitalism by
proposing “abstinence” theory as
justification of capitalist profit. 45
serraillier, auguste (b. 1840), French
shoemaker, member of General
Council of First International and of
Paris Commune; friend of Marx and
Engels. 83, 92

SEWARD, WILLIAM HENRY (1801-1872),
Secretary of State in Lincoln’s Cab-
inet during Civil War. 72
shaw, george Bernard (1856-1950), cele-
brated English playwright; a founder
of the Fabian Society. 226, 229, 247,
249

SHERMAN, WILLIAM TECUMSEH (1820-
1891), outstanding Civil War gen-
eral in Union army. 64, 68-69
SIGEL, FRANZ (1824-1902), German-
American soldier, commanded revo-
lutionary troops in Baden in 1849;
emigrated to U.S. (1852); a Union
general during Civil War. 58, 64
singer, PAUL (1844-1911), German So-
cial-Democrat; member of party
Executive from 1877 on; Reichstag
deputy after 1884. 119, 237

SISMONDI, JEAN CHARLES LEONARD SI-

monde de (1773-1842), Franco-Swiss
economist and historian; early social-
ist critic of the classical school. 62
smith, adam (1723-1790), Scottish
philosopher and economist, founder
of the classical school of political
economy. 62

SORCE, FRIEDRICH ADOLPH ( 1827-1906) ,
German-American communist, music
teacher by profession; fought in
Baden uprising of 1849; emigrated
to U.S. (1852), where he became
leader of First International. 3, 6,
8-9, 11, 74-75, 80, 83-86. 89, 92-94,
108, 112, 114-16, 118, 122-23, 127,
130-31, 134, 138-40, 142, 146, 148,
150, 152, 153 n., 156, 160, 162, 169,
174, 176-78, 180-81, 183-84, 186*89,

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX

192, 194-95, 200-08, 210, 212-13, 217-
20, 224, 227, 229, 232-34, 236, 238,
241, 243, 246, 248, 252, 254, 256-57,
259-60, 262-63, 266, 268-69, 273, 277,
285

swinton, john (1830-1901), American
journalist and reformist socialist;
managing editor of New York Times
during Civil War; chief editorial
writer of New York Sun in 1870’s; a
founder of Socialist Labor Party
(1877), founded and edited labor
weekly, John Swinton's Newspaper
(1883-87). 11, 121, 124, 127
sylvis, william h. (1828-1869), out-
standing American labor leader of
Civil War era; president of National
Iron Molders’ Union (1863-69); presi-
dent of National Labor Union
(1868-69). 6, 74

SZEMERE, bartholomXus (1812-1869),
Prime Minister of Hungarian revo-
lutionary government in 1849; in
Paris headed left wing of Hungarian
exiles, opposed to Kossuth. 42, 46
sznayde, FRANZ (1790-1850), Polish revo-
lutionary, fought in Polish uprising
of 1830; in 1849, general of revolu-
tionary Baden-Palatinate army. 69
theisz, albert fr£d£ric f£lix (1839-
1881), French metal worker, Prou-
dhonist, member of Paris Section of
First International and of Paris Com-
mune; in London, member of Gen-
eral Council and treasurer of First
International (1872). 83, 125
THIERS, LOUIS ADOLPHE (1797-1877),
French bourgeois historian and poli-
tician; Premier (1836-40); hangman
of Paris Commune in 1871; President
of Third Republic (1871-73). 22, 53,
100, 113

THORNE, WILLIAM JAMES (1857-1946),
British trade union leader; member
of Social Democratic Federation;
M.P. (1906-15), chauvinist during
World War I. 235

tillett, benjamin (1860-1943), British
trade union leader; founder of Dock
Workers Union, after 1922 a leader
of Transport Workers Union; chau-
vinist M.P, during World War I. 235

303

TORRENS, ROBERT (1780-1864), English
economist of the classical school, a
disciple of Ricardo. 45
tucxer, benjamin ricketson (b. 1854),
American philosophical anarchist;
founder of Radical Review (1877)
and Liberty (1881), New York and
Boston. 191

“tussy.” See Eleanor Marx-Aveling.
VAILLANT, MARIE EDOUARD (1840-1915),
French socialist; active in Paris Com-
mune and member of General Coun-
cil of First International; co-leader
of French Socialist Party; Deputy
(1893-1914), chauvinist during World
War I. 83, 211

van. patten, phillip, American social-
ist; secretary of Central Labor Union
of New York (1876-83); national sec-
retary of Working Men’s Party
(1876), and of Socialist Labor Party
(1879); became government official
(1883). 9, 11, 137, 139
viereck, louis (1851-1921), German
right-wing Sodal-Democrat and jour-
nalist, disciple of Diihring; Reichs-
tag deputy (1884-86); emigrated to
U.S. in late 1880’s; left labor move-
ment, and, during World War I,
directed pro-German propaganda in
U.S. 119, 127, 132, 155, 176, 278, 282
voct, august (ca. 1830-ca. 1883), Ger-
man-American shoemaker, member
of Communist League in Cologne
and then of General Association of
German Workers in Berlin; emi-
grated to the U.S. in 1866; corre-
spondent of General Council of First
International for the U.S. 77, 80, 82
VOGT, KARL (1817-1895), German natur-
alist, member of Frankfurt National
Assembly and of Reich Regency in
Stuttgart; exposed as an agent of
Napoleon III by Marx in his book,
Herr Vogt. 9, 39

VOLLMAR, GEORG HEINRICH VON (1850-
1922), German ex-officer and right-
wing Social-Democrat; an editor of
Sozialdemokrat (1879-90) and deputy
(1881-87, 1890-1918). 120, 237
wallau, karl (1823-1877), German type-
setter; member of Central Commit-

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX

3°4

tee of Communist League; later Lord
Mayor of Mainz. 15

walthfr, otto, German- American so-
cialist; on Executive of Socialist La-
bor Party in New York after 1875;
editor of New York labor papers,
Sozialdemokrat and Arbeiterstimme.
172

webb, Sidney j ames (1859 1947), English
sociologist, a founder of the Fabian
Society; took a stand for the U.S.S.R.
in his book, Soviet Communism (in
collaboration with his wife. Beatrice
Webb). 249

weerth, ceorg ludwig (1822-1856), Ger-
man poet and journalist; member of
Communist League, feuilleton editor
of Neue Rheinische Zeitung; called
by Engels “the first and most impor-
tant poet of the German proletariat.”
25, 29-30, 32-33, 47, 60

weitung, wilhelm (1808-1871), Ger-
man-American Utopian communist,
tailor by trade; joined League of the
Just (1837); propagandized communist
ideas in Paris and Switzerland (1835-
41); published Republik der Arbeiter
in New York (1850-55). 30, 117-18

WELLINGTON, ARTHUR WELLESLEY, DUKE

of (1769-1852), British field marshal,
commander-in-chief during Napole-
onic wars; diehard Tory, Prime Min-
ister (1827-29, 1834). 40, 67

WESTPHALEN, EDGAR VON (1819-1890),
brother of Jenny Marx and school-
mate of Karl Marx; joined Com-
munist League in 1846; lived in U.S.
for a long time. 47

weydemeyer, Joseph (1818-1866), Ger-
man-American communist, editor,
and soldier; pioneer American Marx-
ist; emigrated to U.S. in 1851; pub-
lished Die Revolution (1852) and on
staff of Die Reform, both in New
York; founded Stimme des Volkes
in Chicago (1860); served in Union
array, retiring as brigadier general;
edited Die Neue Zeit in St. Louis
after the war. 3-5, 9-11, 16-18, 20,
22-23, 25, 27-28, 30-33, 36-37, 40, 42,
46-48, 53, 60, 63, 65, 67

WHALEY, j. c. c., president of Washing-
ton Trades’ Assembly and member
of First International; first president
of National Labor Union (1866). 74

willich, august von (1810-1878), Prus-
sian ex-officer, commanded a volun-
teer corps in Baden 1849 uprising;
member of Central Committee of
Communist League (1849-50); emi-
grated to U.S. (1853); fought in
Union army, rising to brigadier gen-
eral; later held high civil service
post in Cincinnati. 16-17, 24, 57,
60, 64

wischnewetzky, mrs. See Florence
Kelley.

WOLFF, FERDINAND [“RED WOLFF”] (1812-
ca. 1893), German democratic pub-
licist, nicknamed “Red” because of
his red beard and radical views;
member of Communist League and
of editorial staff of Neue Rheinische
Zeitung; emigrated to England;
broke with Marx in 1850’s. 30-32

WOLFF, WILHELM [“LUPUS”] (1809-1861),
member of Central Committee of
Communist League; an editor of
Neue Rheinische Zeitung (1848-49);
fought in Revolution of 1848; emi-
grated to England in 1851; a close
friend of Marx and Engels, Vol. I of
Capital is dedicated to him. 23, 25,
28-33, 38-39, 43, 48. 50-52. 60

WOODHULL, VICTORIA CLAFLIN (18)8-

1927), American feminist and “social
freedom” advocate; leader of Section
No. 12 of First International in New
York; with her sister, Tennessee
Claflin, founded IVoodhull and Claf-
lin’s Weekly (1870); nominated for
President of the U.S. by Equal Rights
Party (1872). 85

zasulich, vera (1851-1919), together
with Plekhanov, a founder of Eman-
cipation of Labor (1883), the first
Marxist group in Russia; translated
a number of Marx’s works into Rus-
sian; became a Menshevik after split
in Russian Social -Democratic Party
(1903). 126 n„ 284

SUBJECT INDEX

Africa, 216, 225; Bismarck’s maneuvers
in East Africa, 210

Agrarian question, in Ireland, 77-79,
121; in Italy, 27. See also Agriculture
Agricultural proletariat, 121, 228, 266;
in Ireland, 230

Agriculture, condition in U.S., 75; crisis
in Europe, 18. See also Agrarian ques-
tion; Farmers; Land; Peasants
Alliance of Socialist Democracy, 86, 102,
110-11, 124, 209. See also Anarchists
American Federation of Labor, rela-
tions with Socialist Labor Party, 233-
34, 240. See also Gompers, Samuel;
Trade unions; U.S., Labor movement
Anarchists, in France, 125-26, 259; in
Germany, 277; and I.W.A., 138;
Marx’s position on, 137-38; rise after
Paris Commune, 168; in Russia, 126;
in U.S., 161. See also Alliance of So-
cialist Democracy; Bakunin, Michael
A.; Most, Johann

Ancient Society by Lewis H. Morgan.
143

Anti-Corn Law League, 40
Anti-Diihring [Herr FMgen Diihrings
Revolution in Science] by Engels, 151
Anti-Rent Party (U.S.) , 129
Anti-Socialist Law (Germany) , 142,
147, 155, 159, 194, 225, 227-28; atti-
tude of opportunists, 132. See also
Germany

Aristocracy, 77; English, and trade in
18th century, 44; English, struggle
with Chartists and bourgeoisie, 17;
Galician, 27 n.

Austria, electoral reform (1890 s), 261,
271; and Polish insurrection, 63;
Socialists in, 260; war preparations
(1889) , 210

Baden uprising (1849), 17, 21, 25, 58
Bakuninists, and First International.
98-100; in Italy. 99; program, 90-92;
in Spain, 99, 103-04; and the state,
96-97. See also Anarchists; Bakunin,
Michael A.

Bee-Hive (London daily, 1861-76) , 74,
112

Belgium, electoral reform in, 261
Bimetallism, in U.S., 259
Black Redistribution group (Russia) ,
284

Blanquists, 265

Bourgeoisie, and decaying feudalism,
260; industrial, 40-42, 48, 238; and
parliamentary reforms, 40; Prussian,
56; U.S., as bourgeois ideal, 157

California, and capitalist centraliza-
tion, 126

Canada, and annexation to U.S., 204
Capital, centralization of, 126, 148
Capital, Vol. I, abridgment of, 133;
and American workers, 159; Broad-
house-Hyndman translation, 153;
German press reviews, 74; pamphlets
on content of, 160; plan for, 61-62,
73; summary, 138

Capital, Vol. I, editions of: English,
130, 143, 151-52, 155-56, 174; French,
93, 112, 140; German (First) 73,
(Second) 108, (Third) 140, (Fourth)
233; Russian, 108-09, 126, 284
Capital, Vol. II, delavs in printing,
141, 143; Marx’s plans for, 73, 75;
revisions, 140-41

Capital, Vol. Ill, Engels’ work on, 162,
195, 207, 245, 248, 251, 258; Marx’s
plan for, 73; translation into English,
216; versions, 143

Capital, Vol. IV, 73 n.; Engels on, 143
Capitalism, and conquest of China,
266; German, as compared to English
and U.S., 274; and old land laws,
122. See also Bourgeoisie
Capitalist production, and land expro-
priation, 288; and slave system in
U.S., 2; and speculative fever in
America, 204

Chartist movement, 7, 146, 178, 188,
249; and bourgeoisie, 17, 61; disor-
ganization of, 61

Chauvinism, in France, 214, 231; against
Portuguese, 225; and war, 194. See
also Boulanger, Georges Ernest

SUBJECT INDEX

S°6

“Cheap money,” and western farmers,
257

China, internal changes, 266; relations
with Europe and America, 266
Civil War (U.S., 1861-65), and Ameri-
can workers, 66, 76; and European
ruling classes, 75; and European
working classes, 65-66, 75; Grant’s
Richmond campaign, 67-69; military
cadres of Southern oligarchy, 63;
military strategy, 63-64; as people’s
war, 63

Civil War in France , The , by Marx, 84,
86, 94, 109

Civil War in the United States, The,
by Marx and Engels, 252 n.

Classes, antagonism between, 45; bour-
geois historians on, 45; and credit
institutions in France, 52; and diver-
gent interests within same dass, 239;
and slogan of “equality of classes,”
91; in U.S., 157. See also Bourgeoisie;
Middle class; Working dass
Class struggle, 286; and conditions in
England, 43 n.; Disraeli on, 44; in
England, 244; Marx on theory of, 45;
and political movements, 93-95; in
U.S., 44, 157

Cologne Communist trial, 48-51; and
Communist Manifesto, 57; financial
appeal for defendants, 52; situation
of prisoners, 31, 36-37
Commodities, Marx’s notes for histori-
cal analysis, 61-62; Proudhonist the-
ory, 62. See also Capital, Vol. I
Commonweal (London Weekly, 1885-
94), 156, 186, 206, 211, 219
Communards, 95; appeal by I.W.A.,
82*83; finaridal support, 102; slaugh-
ter, 113. See also Paris Commune
Communist League, 163
Communists, immediate and ultimate
aims, 291

Communist Manifesto, and American
workers, 177; and Cologne trial, 57;
on relation of Communists to prole-
tariat, 292; on relation of present to
future of socialist movement, 167;
reprinting without changes, 133; on
role of state, 137; on transition meas-
ures, 128

Communist Manifesto, translations of:

English, 28, 43, 131, 184; Danish,
184; French, 184; Italian, 184; Rus-
sian, 140

Condition of the Working Class in
England in 1844, The, 7, 158, 241,
285; publication in U.S., 133, 144-45,
150-51, 178; preface to U.S. edition,
145, 178, 285-91; and U.S. sodalist
cliques, 200. See also Kelley, Florence
Constitution of the U.S., 258
Contribution to the Critique of Politi-
cal Economy, A, by Marx, 10
Corn Laws, abolition of, 22, 44
Cotton, and prosperity in Britain
(1853) , 55

Cri du Peuple (Sodalist weekly, Paris,
1871 and 1883-89), 181, 211
Crisis, economic, approadiing in Eu-
rope (1849), 18; of 1886, 149-50;
financial, in France, 52

Democracy, and indirect restrictions in
Britain, 268-69
Democratic Party (U.S.) , 239
Dictatorship of the proletariat, 45. See
also State; Working class

Eastern Question, The, by Marx, 221
Economic struggles, relation to politi-
cal movement, 93-95
L’£galit£ (Paris daily organ of Work-
ers' Party) , 124, 211
Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bona-
parte, The, by Marx, 30, 36, 42 n.,
48 n; proceeds from, 51; publication
in U.S., 48
Elberfeld trial, 221
Elections, in East Prussia (1891) , 236;
in England (1895) , 264; in Germany
among peasants (1890) , 228; labor
victories in Chicago and Cincinnati,
182-83; in New York (1886), 197;
political coalitions, 275; reforms in
Europe, 261 %

Engels, Frederick, death of, 277; de-
cides on trip to U.S., 201; errors of,
analyzed by Lenin, 286; eye trouble,
201, 207; and Lenchen, 232; and
letter from Gompers, 240; in Man-
chester, 1; and Marx’s children, 171;
on money matters in working class
movement, 170; position on a war

SUBJECT INDEX

between Germany and Russia, 238;
study of military science, 16-17, 20-22,
25, 48, 53-54, 232; study of Russian
and Sanskrit, 48; study of Slavic
languages, 53; trip to America, 200-
205, 207-09, 291-93; visit to Concord,
N.H., prison, 202-03; work on Capi-
tal, Vol. Ill, 162, 195, 207; writing
restricted by doctors, 198
England, as ally of revolutionary Con-
tinent, 18; cabinet crisis (1850) , 19;
changing conditions of working class,
145; development of labor movement
(1889), 220; effect of U.S. elections
of 1886, 164; foreign policy, under
Lord Derby, 41; and foreign trade,
22-23; industrial monopoly, 149; in-
volvement with Germany, 210; and
material conditions for revolution,
78-79; problems relating to war, 34-
35, 40, 196; status of industry, 49;
and war on U.S., 65, 75; working
class and Irish question, 78-79
European war, preconditions for, 113

Fabian Society, 229, 233, 246-47, 257,
279

Farmers, U.S., and “cheap money,”
257, 259; migratory, 239; role of
small farmers, 239. See also Agricul-
ture

“Federative republic,” 45
Fenian prisoners, 79, 96
First International. See International
Workingmen’s Association
France, and chauvinism, 214, 231; cor-
ruption of bourgeoisie, 270; credit
institutions, 52; elections (1893) , 253;
first real labor movement, 125; in-
surrections, 56; and socialists, 259;
and war problems, 195; and workers’
syndicates, 113. See also Paris Com-
mune

Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) , 80, 84,
116, 209

Free trade, 44, 199; in corn, 17; meas-
ures in England, 41
Free Trade by Marx, 193, 197
Freiheit, Die (Anarchist weekly, Lon-
don and New York, 1879-1910), 118,
138

307

Gazettino Rosa (weekly organ of Milan
Section, I.W.A.) , 88, 98, 101, 103
General Association of German Work-
ers, 70. See also International Work-
ingmen's Association; Lassalle, Ferdi-
nand; Lassalleans

German -American socialists, and Amer-
ican working class movement, 169;
boycott of Engels, in New York, 196;
and Marxist orthodoxy, 263; role in
socialist movement, 223; and theory,
162-63. See also Sodalist Labor Party;
Sorge, Frederick; Weydemeyer, Jo-
seph

German Democratic Sodety, 15
German Workers Club, 15
Germany, arming in war, 194-95; Anti-
Socialist law, 119-20, 122, 188, 234,
277-78; capitalist development com-
pared with England and America,
274; changes in, 255; development of
manufacturing industry, 145; elec-
tions, (1887) 176, (1893) 250, 253;
involvement with England, 210;
peaceful development in, 239; peas-
ant problem in, 270; persecution in,
184; and philistinism, 147, 153; rise
of Sodalist movement, 244-45; work-
ers* aptitude for theory, 102, 185.
See also Sodal-Democratic Party
(Germany)

Germany: Revolution and Counter-
Revolution by Engels, 221
Gleickheit (Sodal-Democratic weekly,
Vienna, 1886-89), 186, 206, 211
Greenbackism, 81, 240

Haymarket affair, 252 n.

Hegelian philosophy, 45
History of German Social-Democracy
by Franz Mehring, 273, 278
History of Socialism in the United
States by Morris Hillquit, 273
Holland, electoral reform in, 261
Holy Alliance, 40

Holy Family, The, by Marx and En-
gels, 211 '

Hundred Years' Wars (1337-1453) , 72
Hungary, 40; and Revolution of 1848,
56

SUBJECT INDEX

3°8

^ Immediate demands, 220, 291

Immigration, 235, 237, 258; of Germans.
289-90. See also German-Americans

Inaugural Address of I.W.A. by Marx,
65, 90

Income tax, and Prussian bourgeoisie,
56

Independent Labor Party (England) ,
246, 249, 264, 268

Industry, and creation of proletariat,
145; revolut ionary role, 244; superi-
ority in U.S., 261

International Workingmen’s Associa-
tion, 3, 5; and Alliance of Socialist
Democracy, 86; and anarchism, 138;
appeal for refugee Communards. 82-
83, 95; Bakuninist conspiracy against,
98-100, 109; Basel resolutions, 98;
circular on Bakunin, 102; and coali-
tion of German-Irish workers in
America, 79-80; and conditions for
new International, 114-15; end of,
114; and European history, 114;
founding of, 105; and German work-
ers party, 105; headquarters in New
York City, 6; and Irish question,
77-79; and Lincoln, 65, 252; and
Paris Commune, 114; and political
struggle, 97-98; and revolution in
England, 79; role in keeping England
from war against U.S., 65; and sects,
90; statutes of, 84-86, 93; strength of,
73-74; successes in Europe, 71; theo-
retical character, 114. See also Anar-
chists

International Workingmen’s Associa-
tion, addresses of: The Civil War in
France , 84, 86, 94, 109; Inaugural,
65, 90; to President Johnson, 71; to
President Lincoln, 5, 65-66; to Na-
tional Labor Union, 75-76

International Workingmen’s Associa-
tion, Congresses of: Basel (1869) , 98;
Hague (1872), 6, 114, 138

International Workingmen’s Associa-
tion, sections of: Belgium, 74, 107;
England, 71, 74, 113; Italy, 71; Paris,
71; Spain, 102; Switzerland, 71, 74;
U.S., 84-85, 89-91, 115; New York
Federal Council, 89; Section 12 (New
York) , 85

Ireland, agricultural workers in, 230;

home rule for, 197

Irish question, 220; and emancipation
of English workers, 77, 79; and Eng-
lish bourgeoisie, 77-78; and I.W.A
77-79

Irish workers in U.S., 242

Italy, Bakuninist secret societies in,
104; and Bakuninist theory, 97; cor-
ruption of bourgeoisie, 270; difficulty
of reaching workers, 104; effects of
1848 Revolution, 56; needs of rural
population, 27; and Socialist Party,
260; and workers’ abstention from
politics, 99; workers as Mazzinists,
99; and workers’ support of press. 103

’Jacobin,” 283

Jews, 235, 242; and Bakunin, 110

Junkers, 227, 257, 270

Justice (weekly organ of Social Demo-
cratic Federation in London, 1884-
1925), 144, 178, 249

Knights of Labor, 161, 167, 179, 186,
279, 287, 289-90; careerist leaders,
178; and political neutrality, 275;
principles, 163. See also Powderly,
Terence V.

Labor leaders, and industrial prosper
ity in England, 112; lack of unity in
England, 262. See also Gompers,
Samuel; Powderly, Terence V.; Syl-
vis, William H.

Labor movement, and depression, 220-
21; immediate goal, 251; and sec-
tarianism, 9, 263; unexpected forms.
192; urging socialists to merge with.
281. See also Trade unions; U.S.,
Labor movement

Labor party, importance of, 274; need
of, in U.S., 167; program, 287

Labour Elector (London weekly, 1888-
90), 219, 225, 229, 247

Labour Leader , The (weekly organ of
Independent Labor Party, London,
1891-1922), 264

Land, as basis of speculation, 239; ex-
propriation of, 288; “Galician re-
form, 27; in Ireland and England
121; monopolization of, 288; in U.S.,

SUBJECT INDEX

309

129. See also Agriculture; George,
Henry

Land rent, 45, 191; in Capital, Vol. II,
75; Ricardo on, 127; and state, 128;
and transitional measures, 128
Lassalleans, compromise with, in Ger-
many, 116; at Erfurt congress, 237;
sectarianism in Germany, 71, 90; in
U.S., 131-32. See also Lassalle, Fer-
dinand

Law, English common, 161; feudal, 164
League of Peace and Freedom, 96 n.
Lenin, V.I., on lessons of Marx’s and
Engels’ activities (1867-95) , 273-74
Looking Backward 2000-1887 by Ed-
ward Bellamy, 219n.

Marx, Karl, contradictory interpreta-
tions of his writings, 254; death of,
134-36; death of youngest child, 47;
denounced as spy, 50; deportation of,
16; on discovery of existence of
classes, 45; eye trouble, 42; hated by
Fabians, 247; illnesses, 31-33, 80, 131-
32; and Lenchen, 232; mathematical
manuscripts, 141; nickname, 136; on
poetry, 32-33; in poor health, 112,
131; poverty of, 24, 37; studying in
British Museum, 23
Materialist conception of history, 142-43
Mathematics, Marx’s manuscripts on,
141

May Day, 240, 242. 253
Means of production, 288; Fabians on
ownership, 247
Middle Ages, 288

Middle class, in American Revolution.
66, 76; and “great men,” 19. See also
Classes; Petty bourgeoisie
Military campaigns. See Engels, Fred-
erick

Money, circulation among peasants in
Russia, 40; theories on, 62, 81
“Municipal socialism,” 246, 279
Mutualists. See Proudhonists

Napoleonic campaigns, 20
National Citizens Alliance, 233
Nationalist (Boston, 1889-91), 229, 233
Nationalists (U.S.) , 219, 224, 233
Near Eastern crisis (1877) , as turning
point in European history, 115-16

Negro people, 258; effects of slavery on
white workers, 66; and “poor whites,”
78; slavery, 286

Neue Rheinische Zeitung (Cologne
daily published by Marx, 1848-49) ,
28-29, 37, 47, 50, 136

Neue Rheinische Zeitung— Politisch-
dkonomische Revue (monthly edited
by Marx, Hamburg, 1850) , 16-18, 20,
29, 31, 43

Neue Zeit, Die (theoretical organ of
German Social-Democratic Party,
Stuttgart, 1883-1923), 211, 268, 290

New American Encyclopedia, 10

New York Herald (bourgeois daily,
now merged into Herald Tribune,
1835—) , 175, 179-80, 203, 218

New York Tribune (Republican daily
founded by Horace Greeley, now
merged into Herald Tribune , 1841—) ,
9-10, 27, 34, 50

New-Yorker Staats Zeitung (founded
1834 by New York printers* union) ,
23-24, 26, 28

New-Yorker Volkszeitung (daily organ
of Socialist Labor Party and later of
Socialist Party, New York, 1878—),
139, 156, 164, 175, 178, 181, 183,
186-87, 192, 201, 203, 207 n., 227-28,
236, 249, 268

Notes to the People by Ernest Jones,
31

Opportunism, and Anti-Socialist Law*,
132; and compromise with Lassalle-
ans, 116; among German Social-
Democratic deputies, 144. See also
Possibilists

Origin of the Family, Private Property,
and the State, The, by Engels, 158

Panama scandal, 244

Pan-Slavists, 182

Paris Commune, 125, 138, 274; emigres
of, 102; and possibility of revolt in
southern France, 285. See also Com-
munards

Parliament, free traders as reformers,
17; and industrial bourgeoisie, 40-41;
“parliamentary idiocy,” 281; parlia-
mentary vulgarization, 281-82; as a
rich men’s club, 262

SUBJECT INDEX

310

Pauperism, increase in U.S., 76
Peasant War in Germany, The, by En-
gels, 143

Peasants, Bavarian, and Social -Demo-
cratic Party, 245; differentiation
among, 266; emancipation, in Italy,
27; expropriation of, 288; and Mazzi-
ni’s mistakes, 27; protection against
big landowners, 265; ruin of, 280; in
Russia, 40; steps for emancipation,
27. See also Agrarian question; Land
Petty bourgeoisie, 239; interests of, 57;
and proletarian revolution, 57. See
also Middle class

Philosophic de la Miskre [Philosophy
of Poverty] by Pierre Joseph Prou-
dhon, 52
Physiocrats, 62

Poetry, and needs of poet, 32
Poland, 40; insurrection in (1863-64) ,
63

Pope, on voting socialist, 176
Possibilists, 155, 212, 214, 218, 226,
265, 278-79; losing support in France,
211; and non-socialist trade unions,
215; organizational strength, 217;
selling out to French government,
208

Poverty of Philosophy, The, by Marx,
127, 142, 191

Prices, during Civil War in U.S., 76
Primitive accumulation, history of, 160
Proletarian League, 4
Proletariat, and democracy in U.S.,
275; dictatorship of, 45; and lessons
from activities of Marx and Engels
(1867-95), 273-74; tactics of, 281. See
also Working class

Prosperity, and cotton, 55; effects on
political parties, 56; in U.S., 26
Protectionists, 17

Proudhonists, 2; cofounders of I.W.A.,
90; petty bourgeoisie as ideal, 52; on
rent, 191; theories of commodity ex-
change, 62. See also Proudhon, Pierre
Joseph

Prussia, 210, 242; bourgeoisie, 56; and
Jena, 212; and war with Russia, 248
Public lands, and speculators, 239. See
also Land

Radical Party (France) , 125

Reform, Die (German-language weekly
New York, 1848-54), 53
Republic, democratic, 190
Republican Party (U.S.), 239
Revolution, American, ascendency of
middle class, 66, 76
Revolution, bourgeois-democratic, 281-
82

Revolution, Die (founded by Wcyde-
meyer, New York, 1852) , 4, 47
Revolution of 1848, and Hungary, 56;
effects in Italy, 56; post-revolutionary
moods of the masses, 18
Revolution, French, 43, 229
Revolution, socialist, 221, 283, 285;
Fabians’ fear of, 246; inevitability of,
279; Marx on, 137; material condi-
tions for, in England, 78-79; pre-
liminaries, 57; and Russian inter-
vention, 18; shifting to East, 116;
and state, 97, 137

Reynold's Weekly Newspaper (London
democratic weekly founded 1847, now
Reynold's News), 112, 218
Russia, assassinations in, 182; break-
down of tsarism, 157; and Capital,
Vol. I, 108-09, 126; and diplomatic
intrigue, 210; Engels on campaign of
1812, 54; famine in, 238; foundation
of empire, 40; impending crisis in,
81; peasantry in, 40; and possibility
of noble-bourgeois revolution, 54;
possibility of paralyzing French pro-
letarian revolution, 212; revolution-
ary trends in, 184; on threshold of
upheaval, 115-16, 283; tsarism as
mainstay of European reaction, 157;
and war, 194-96, 239, 248; and work-
ing class revolutionary action, 285
Russo-Turkish war, 115

Second International, 3, 248; formation
of (Paris Congress) , 212-19; prelimi-
nary Hague Conference (1889) , 212-
13; second Congress (Brussels, 1891),
233

Sectarianism, 240; in England, 234; and
I.W.A., 90-91; in labor movement, 9,
263; need to combat, 281; of Social-
ists, 275; in U.S., 142, 234. See also
Sects; Socialists

SUBJECT INDEX

Sects (socialist) , 192, 234, 248, 253; and
I.W.A., 90, 168; and intrigues, 100;
reasons for, 263
Sedition Bill (Germany) , 270
Sharecropping system, and bourgeois
property, 27

Single tax, 127-29. See also George,
Henry

Slavery, and emancipation, 288; and
European workers, 65-66; as obstacle
to political and social development,
63. See also Civil War (U.S.)
Social-Democrat (Lassallean organ, Ber-
lin, 1865-71) , 70, 74
Social Democratic Federation (Eng-
land) , 209, 213, 249, 264, 268; and
Independent Labor Party, 246; and
Marxist orthodoxy, 63; and possibil-
ists, 215-16, 218

Social -Democratic Party (Germany) , 7,
216, 277, 282; and Anti -Socialist Law,
122, 132, 142, 155; and Bavarian
peasantry, 266-67; and censorship of
Marx and Engels, 8; criticism of,
119-21; and Diihring, 116; Erfurt
Congress, 237; historical develop-
ment, 280; increase in vote, 236, 250;
and Lassalleans, 116-17; and Leip-
zigers, 119-20, 123; position on a
Russian-German war, 238; rise in
Germany, 244; steady successes, 245
Socialism, 196, 249; on American soil,
286; converting bourgeois to, 226;
discord in European movement, 208;
of Fabians, 247; Mazzini attacks on,
46; penetration in England, 248
Socialism, Utopian and Scientific by
Engels, 142, 151-52, 159
Socialist Labor Party (U.S.), 154, 175,
188, 220. 263, 287; and A.F. of L.,
233-34, 240; and dogmatism, 7; for-
eign composition, 289-90; German
section, 224; and Marxist program,
178; and Nationalists, 233; platform,
288-89. See also German -American
socialists; Sectarianism
Socialist League (England) , 144, 162,
165, 185, 230-31

Sozialdemokrat , Der (daily organ of
German Social -Democratic Party,
Zurich and London, 1879-90) , 123,
132, 139, 182, 200, 206, 209

3 11

Sozialist, Der (weekly organ of Social-
ist Labor Party, New York, 1885-92),
147, 156, 164

Spain, 40-41; influence of Bakuninists
in, 97, 99, 103-104

State, and authority, 97; Bakunin's
theory of, 96-97; fulfilling new func-
tions after proletarian victory, 137;
and land rent, 127-28; and prole-
tarian revolution, 137; and Social-
Democratic workers, 96-97

Strikes, dockers in England, 222, 224;
1886-88 movement in U.S., 237; and
Knights of Labor, 237. See also Labor
movement; Trade unions

Suffrage (universal) , 260; and Bis-
marck, 70; and industrial bourgeoisie,
40

Surplus value, Henry George on, 127;
need for popular Marxist pamphlet
on, 160

Tactics, of Fabians, 247, 279; Marxist,
in U.S., 164; of the workers’ party
in different countries, 274

Tariff, protective, 233, 235, 257, 259,
261

Theories of Surplus Value. See Capital,
Vol. IV

Theory, and American working class,
140, 185; and conditions in U.S.,
160; contempt for, in U.S., 166, 240;
not a dogma, 166, 168; and German
workers, 102, 162-63; as guide to ac-
tion, 163; ignorance of, among young
people, 154; in I.WA, 114; and
Utopian socialism, 117

Third Republic (France) , 231

Thirty Years’ Wars (1618-48) , 72, 194-
OS

To-day (Socialist monthly, London,
1883-89) , 144, 186, 200, 206

Tories, 17, 41, 55

Trade unions, A.F. of L., 233-34, 240;
aristocratic, 242; confusion in, 161;
in England, 211, 222-23, 231; new,
220, 229; non-socialist, 215; old and
new, 220, 223, 235; and organization,
222; and struggle against capital, 222.
See also Knights of Labor; Labor
movement; Strikes

.812

I cades Union Congress, and bourgeois
labor party, 236

lurkey, 283; war with Russia, 115

nm'Sr v '"' **» ('»«•

Two-party system (U.S.) , 239

l nited States, and abolition of Presi-
dency and ^Senate, 250; agricultural
conditions, /5; boom after Civil War
63; bourgeois development, without
feudal past, 161, 225. 242; as hour-
gems .deal 157; as bourgeois repul, -

2 «. an i % aracter of development,
-43, and class stratification, 157; and

j trUg ? le> 44; corruption in, 199 ,
239, draining off surplus population.

- . duality of development, 270-
ngels plans for trip to, 33; Eng-

p n n % S , War , drive against, 65; and
English industrial monopoly, H9-

ZJ and !?’ 2: eXports of manufac-
tured goods to, 41; as haven for
immigrants, 2 ; industry (J885) , 145 *
and industry in war, 195; market

conditions (1852) . 41; prosperity, 26;

nomir' V 8 ' 49 ’ 257: Special «o-
nom.c conditions, 26; theory i„, 160 ,

. 5 ‘ , 248 ’ and . diird party, 239; un-
eveloped social conditions, 45 - war

“248^ 75;a >^

U.S Labor movement, character of,
141; decline of, 237 , 269; and eight-
hour day, 94 , 220 , 286; German So-
c,a hsts in, 162-63, 257; and native-
born workers, 154; need of labor
unity, 291 ; and sectarianism, 142
234; and Socialist Workers’ Party
2 a 8 ; and ups and downs of socialist
movement, 238; upsurge in 1886, 164-
and aworkers-party, 258. See also

uL' “ 01 Llbo ’ : s “ ial

U-S., Working class, absence of demo-
cratic problems for proletariat, 275;
attitude to bourgeois regime, 243;
wT * mistakes - !90; and Civil

150 2*37- % S ' f 6 ’ 76: conditions °f-

68 224 '286 eV r Pment ° f * 157 ’ ,6G '

6 fi-’ Tv/ Gern, an immigrants in,

28 L in? ,° f /1 polidca l “dependence,

281, and land question, 129; native-

SUBJECT INDEX

horn, 154, 239, 242- and ,h
Practice. 193. 220 , 223 . See S'
Labor movement U * ”

I topian socialism, 117 c„„ _

Etienne; Saint ft

V plu,' valut CapiM ’ Vo1 - * Sur.
Vorwdrts (became daily organ of Cer

" ago. Labor and Capital by Marx, 151 ,
"ar, and chauvinism, 194 on fi . .

dan^r 75 of! 6 i n an E d u - p Jgj* g*
effects on countries, 194-96; new k^nd

Turkish a ?i^ n C (I88G) ’ ' 93:

ttisW ' ak ° Civil w ar
(U.S.), Franco-Prussian War; Mili-
tary campaigns
Whigs, 17, 55

Woman and Socialism by August Bebe l,

U'omen, and gallantry, 209; in unions,
220 , workers in Vienna, 255
*V omen’s suffrage, and Woodhull-Claf-
bn sisters, 85

Working ^ attitude t0 bourgeoisie,

itv ”221 28?- a ndT‘ S “ respectaba -
262 par’fifi 3 ' d C3SS cons ciousness,
404 , 485-86; correct relation of Marx-
ists to, 169; and corruption, 281*

in ' 258; historical mission
Of, 488; learning from mistakes, 275;
political movement of, 76, 93 - 94 , 97
i63, 263, 275-76, 286-87; representa-
tives in European parliaments, 261.

, also Classes; Proletariat; U.S,
Working class

Workers’ Party [Parti Ouvrier] (France),
alliance with Millerand, 256. See also
Possibilists

Workman's Times (labor paper, Lon-
don and Manchester, 1890 - 94 ), 240
246-47, 256, 260

/.ukunft, Die (Socialist monthly, Ber-
lin, 1877-78) , 116-17, 119-20, 275-76
Zurich Congress, of Second Interna
tional, 248, 254 n.

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